*KARACHI: Pakistan Navy carried out bilateral exercise Turgutreis-III withTurkish Navy here after successfully holding Aman-2019 exercise recently, aNavy spokesman said on Saturday.*
The first two Turgutreis drills held in Pakistani and Turkish watersearlier.
According to the spokesman Pakistan Navy’s ships PNS Aslat, PNS Alamgir andmaritime long-range aircraft participated in joint operations and wartactics with Turkish Navy.
The bilateral naval exercise will further promote bilateral defencerelations, the spokesman said.
A previous exercise covered a wide range of maritime operationsencompassing anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare as well asmaneuvering and communication exercises.
Counter piracy drills were also carried out in which boarding teamsdemonstrated practical boarding operations onboard a suspect vessel.
The exercise proved mutually rewarding to hone professional skills ofparticipating personnel from both navies and learn from each other’sexperiences.
Pakistan Navy ship ‘SAIF’ had earlier participated in joint exercises withthe Turkish navy.
The exercises were aimed at enhancing interoperability betweenparticipating navies through the development of combined tactics,techniques and practices.
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SAIF is fitted with state of the art weapons and sensors for undertakingall types of maritime operations in multi-threat environment, the Navy said.
Turkish Navy earlier also participated in AMAN-2019, a multinational navalexercise hosted by Pakistan from Feb. 8 to 12 in the Arabian Sea.
The biennial maritime exercise kicked off in Karachi with the participationof forces from Turkey, the U.S., Britain, China, Australia, Indonesia, SriLanka, Malaysia and Oman.
In this drill Turkey was represented by the TCG Gokceada, a naval frigate.
The exercise is intended to improve naval coordination between participantstates and promote maritime peace and stability.
The first AMAN drill was conducted in 2007. Since then, it has been heldregularly every two years.
Turkish naval forces participated in the exercise in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013and 2017.
