MILAN 2020: Visakhapatnam gears up to host International Naval event

New Delhi: After successfully hosting the International Fleet Review (IFR) in Feb 2016, the City of Destiny Visakhapatnam is gearing up to host another International Naval event ‘MILAN’ in March 2020, said a Ministry of Defence statement.

MILAN 2020 is a multilateral naval exercise aimed to enhance professional interaction between friendly foreign navies and learn from each other’s strengths and best practices in the maritime domain. 

The Exercise with the theme ‘Synergy Across the Seas’ would provide an excellent opportunity for Operational Commanders of friendly foreign navies to interact with each other in areas of mutual interest. 

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Of the 41 navies invited, confirmations from over 30 navies have been received towards their participation in MILAN 2020.

With about two months to the mega event, the preparations were reviewed at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) by Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, Chief of Staff ENC on January 7, 2020. 

The review meeting saw an overwhelming and positive response from the civil administrators and stakeholder organisations, with participation by Dr G. Srijana Commissioner GVMC, Rajiv Kumar Meena, City Police Commissioner, A Srinivas Secretary VMRDA, RN Hari Krishna, Chief Mechanical Engineer VPT, representatives from HSL, HPCL, IOCL, EPCL, Coromandel Fertilizers Ltd and Senior Police Officers from Special Branch, Law & Order, and Traffic, said the government statement.

A detailed presentation to apprise the attendees of the planned activities of MILAN was conducted. Vice Admiral SN Ghormade has solicited wholehearted support and cooperation from the City Administration, Civic Bodies, Police Department and PSUs in co-hosting the multinational Naval event as was done during IFR in 2016. 

The review meeting was followed by site visits to various venues by the Nodal officers from the Navy and the attendees representing stakeholder organisations towards drawing out time bound action plans, the statement added.