NEW DELHI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The maiden edition of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) Maritime Exercise 2022 (IMEX-22) was conducted on March 26-30 for enhancing interoperability in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations among member navies, India's Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.
The IMEX-22 comprised a harbor phase at Mormugao Port in Goa on March 26-27 followed by a sea phase in the Arabian Sea on March 28-30.
The exercise witnessed the participation of 16 out of the 25 member nations of IONS.
The participation included warships, maritime reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters from the navies of Bangladesh, France, India and Iran. As many as 22 observers from 15 IONS member navies, namely Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE and Britain also participated in the exercise, added the statement.
Established in 2007, the IONS is a premier forum for cooperation and collaboration among navies of littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), it said. ■