The Indian Navy and Coast Guard are doing an extraordinary job to keep the sea lanes safe, the Indian envoy here has said as he praised them for protecting offshore assets, handling distress fishermen and even protecting endangered species of turtles.
Giving assessment of the ever challenging task of coast guard and the ICGS Vaibhav, Indian High Commissioner, Jawed Ashraf, said "the spectrum of activities that they perform are truly head on. The range of the duties that they are performing truly deserved our greatest gratitude and admiration."
The High Commissioner highlighted and praised their efforts and ever ready spirit to keep the sea safe.
"Imagine what they are doing from protecting our biggest offshore assets to protecting this endangered species, olive ridley turtles, that visits the Odisha coast from around November to May every year for nesting.
"It is their wonderful compassion at hands and the duty that they perform at saving these beautiful but endangered species to locating and rescuing fishermen caught in storms," he said.
The global economy in some sense is driven in what happens in this region, he pointed out.
"The Navy and Coast Guard (Force) are doing an extraordinary job of keeping the sea lanes safe," said the High Commissioner of the regional navies and coast guards that interact with their Indian counterparts.
Nothing symbolises than the acts of cooperation and collaboration more than what the coast guards of these (Regional) countries are doing together, Ashraf told some 200 guests at a reception on board the ICGS Viabhav.
"They learn a great deal from each other and share the best practices, they understand that when the time comes, and a call of duty summons them, they have the capacity and familiarity with each other to respond in a coordinated and cooperative manner to any distress in this region whether it is in term of national disaster or crime on sea or in terms of piracy," he underlined.�
ICGS Vaibhav and its coast guards have been at sea since last November and were involved in locating and rescuing fishermen in the Bay of Bengal-Indian Ocean.
ICGS arrived in Singapore yesterday on a goodwill- training visit. It will leave tomorrow for Darwin in Australia and stop at Kuantan in Peninsular Malaysia on the way back in March.