Navy Commander: Indian Ocean States to Stage Joint Wargames under Iran's Command

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi announced that the Indian Ocean littoral states are scheduled to hold joint naval drills under Iran's command in the near future.

News ID: 76894

Date: 18 April 2019 - 19:57

"We will soon witness holding wargames among the Indian Ocean littoral states under the command of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy," Rear Admiral Khanzadi told reporters on the sidelines of the Army Day parades in Tehran on Thursday.

Elsewhere, he underlined that the naval zones under Iran's rule are so much secure and strong that "the enemy even does not imagine to threaten them".

The Iranian Navy had in February urged the member states of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’s (IONS) to draft a joint protocol for naval security, and called for staging joint anti-piracy naval drills to boost cooperation in enforcing collective security in the water body.

“We have all convened here for the very same objective that is to promote convergence, consultation, and interaction for establishing security in the Indian Ocean which is one of the most strategic oceans in the world,” Deputy Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Mohammad Reza Azizi, during the meeting of the IONS Naval Security Commission in Iran’s Southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Iran currently presides the IONS Naval Security Commission.

“We believe that the IONS Naval Security Commission, as one of the trio-commissions of the symposium, has not had a successful function despite the fact that the IONS was formed 10 years ago,” he added.

“As the new chair of the commission, I am after a dynamic, active and serious move to forward joint cooperation to reach a comprehensive and complete protocol on naval security, with sharing views and ideas together,” he said.

The Iranian commander proposed that staging joint anti-piracy drills with the partnership of IONS states and observing members is one of the ways to meet this call.

He said that the formation of the current two-day meeting in Bandar Abbas was a good start in the early months of 2019, voicing hope for further good and positive results during the event.

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