KARACHI: AMAN-2019, the sixth five-day international naval exercise in Pakistan’s coastal mega-city of Karachi kicked off on Friday at the Pakistan Navy Dockyard, after a colourful flag-raising ceremony with all 46 navies participating.
The event is hosted by Pakistan once every two years since 2007, in the interests of international peace and maritime security to tackle common threats at sea.
According to Radio Pakistan, Chief Guest at the occasion was commander of the Pakistan fleet, newly promoted Vice Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, while Romanian navy chief and commander of the Zimbabwe national army attended as guests of honour.
Addressing the ceremony, Vice Admiral Niazi said that the Aman-19 exercise seeks to enhance cooperation between countries and allows them to take benefit from mutual advantages and understand each other.
An additional message from Pakistan’s navy chief, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, was also read out, in which he highlighted that threats to maritime security “increasingly emanate from contemporary asymmetric challenges” and that preservation of the maritime order in the global commons, necessitated collaboration as a matter of compulsion rather than choice.
Other than sea exercises, one of the key events at Aman-19 is a maritime conference, part of its “harbour phase,” with top naval officers and commanders conferring on nautical security dynamics at seminars and demonstrations under this year’s topic, “Global geopolitics in transition; Rethinking maritime dynamics in the Indian Ocean region.”
Earlier at a press conference, Admiral Niazi stressed the growing naval relationship between Pakistan and countries from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman.
“These are not only our Muslim brother countries, with whom Pakistan has always had ideal ties, but their interest in Pakistan, due to investment opportunities here, has further grown over the past few years,” he said.
Representatives from the Indian navy were not invited to the event.
