NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy’s regular deployment of its maritime assets has helped ensure the safe passage of merchant and fishing vessels facing threats of piracy.Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for Defence, on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha, “Since 2008, the Indian Navy has deployed units in the Gulf of Aden and east coast of Africa towards anti-piracy patrols. A total of 3,440 ships and over 25,000 seafarers have been safely escorted.” Bhatt was replying to a question raised by lawmakers.Around 110 warships of the Indian Navy have been deployed for this purpose since 2008.Including the three recent ones, seven incidents of hijacking of vessels on the high seas by pirates have been reported during the last three years, Bhatt said.”In one hijacking incident of merchant vessel Lila Norfolk, 21 crew were present including 15 Indian nationals on January 4-5. Further, two hijacking incidents occurred involving fishing vessels IMAN (January 28) & fishing vessel AI Naeemi (January 29) which did not have any Indian crew on board,” he said.Indian Navy units are regularly deployed on Mission Based Deployments in our areas of interest in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to enhance maritime security. Further, Indian Navy units undertake surveillance to enhance maritime domain awareness and address contingencies that may arise. The Indian Navy has been proactively engaging with regional and extra-regional navies/maritime forces, to promote maritime security in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region). “Bilateral/multilateral maritime exercises, Joint Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surveillance, Coordinated Patrols (CORPATs) with friendly foreign countries are being undertaken by the Indian Navy to enhance maritime security and countering non-traditional threats in an inclusive and cooperative manner,” Bhatt said.Further, towards strengthening regional maritime security, the Centre has established the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) which has linkages with 25 partner nations and over 40 international multinational organisations for real-time information exchange towards enhancing maritime security, said the minister.Moreover, due to the ongoing maritime security situation in the region, Indian Navy units are being deployed in the Gulf of Aden, in the North/ Central Arabian Sea and off the east coast of Somalia for protection of merchant vessels and rendering assistance, if required. In addition, information exchange and intelligence sharing is also being undertaken with friendly foreign countries to identify those involved in the attacks/incidents.
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