Navies from 50 countries, including Turkiye, the US, and China, began a five-day multinational naval exercise led by Pakistan in the Arabian Sea on Friday.
The biannual event, which has taken place since 2007, began with a flag-raising ceremony, Pakistan Television reported.
Regional countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, as well as African Union countries, are taking part in the event with ships, aircraft, special operations forces, marine teams, and observers.
According to the Chinese Defence Ministry, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, Nanning, is taking to part in the drills.
Opening of 8th Multinational Maritime Ex #AMAN2023 commenced with flags Hoisting Ceremony. Cdr Pak Fleet,V/Adm Ovais Ahmed Bilgrami welcomed all 50 participating nations. During ceremony #CNS message was read. A large no of civil, military reps & diplomats attended ceremony pic.twitter.com/tSojD95pEC
— DGPR (Navy) (@dgprPaknavy) February 10, 2023
The naval exercise, organised under the slogan "Together for Peace," is aimed at providing a forum for understanding maritime concepts and operational cultures, enhancing interoperability, and identifying ways and means to combat common threats at sea, the Pakistan Navy said in a statement.
Read more: Pakistan Navy to host AMAN exercise next month
It added that the eighth edition is divided into two phases: harbour and sea.
The harbour phase involves seminars, operational discussions, professional demonstrations, international get together, and pre-sail planning of sea evolutions.
The sea phase includes tactical manoeuvres, maritime security exercises such as anti-piracy and counter-terrorism, search and rescue, gunnery firings, and air defence exercises.
The drill will continue until next Tuesday. The previous edition, held in Feb. 2021, included 48 countries.
In a related development, Pakistan’s first-ever International Maritime Expo and Conference also kicked off in Karachi on Friday.
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