IOS SAGAR going to be annual event: Vice Admiral Sobti

New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) IOS SAGAR -- an initiative towards continued cooperation with Indian Ocean Region (IOR) nations -- is going to be an annual event, and next year it will start around the end of March running up till May, a top naval official said.

Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (DCNS), Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti, said "this time we are looking at going towards the Southeast Asia (region)".

He was interacting with PTI Videos on the sidelines of inaugural session of the seventh edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) being hosted by the Indian Navy here from October 28-30.

Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) is an initiative towards continued cooperation with IOR nations in pursuance of India's vision of Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions (MAHASAGAR).

On April 5, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had flagged off IOS SAGAR from the strategically-located Karwar naval base in Karnataka under a mission that sought to reinforce India's commitment to regional maritime security and international cooperation.

It was on a nearly month-long deployment in the southwest Indian Ocean Region.

IOS SAGAR also emphasised India's role as a "preferred security partner" and the "first responder" in the IOR.

The theme of the 2025 edition of IPRD is 'Promoting Holistic Maritime Security and Growth: Regional Capacity-Building and Capacity Enhancement'.

Vice Admiral Sobti said, "IOS Sagar, the vision that we had at naval headquarters for this was that...we realised that security, maritime security cannot be undertaken by one country alone, because this area is so large, no single country has got the capacity to do it on its own." "So we wanted to do it in a collective manner and the vision that we had, it was an idealistic vision that we would have one ship which would be crewed by nationalities of all the participating nations and we would do EEZ surveillance of all the participating nations," he said.

Under the vision, it will be a "multinationally-owned ship, multinationally-crewed", for the purpose of all the countries which are there in the area, Vice Admiral Sobti said.

"But the practical implementation of it was that the Indian Navy provided the ship, and we invited crews from many countries to join us, nine countries in fact, nearly 50 crew members and we did a patrol of the southwest Indian Ocean," the DCNS said.

INS Sunayna, the Indian Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel, had assumed the mantle of IOS SAGAR under the mission earlier this year that sought to reaffirm Indian's commitment to "building stronger ties with its maritime neighbours and working towards a safer, more inclusive and secure maritime environment in the IOR".

After sailing out from Karwar, the 105-m-long ship, in its nearly month-long deployment, visited Dar-es-Salaam, Nacala, Port Louis and Port Victoria.

The ship was commissioned in October 2013 and has a displacement tonnage of nearly 2,500 tonne.

The tagline of IOS SAGAR is 'One Ocean One Mission'.

Vice Admiral Sobti told PTI that IOS SAGAR is "going to be an annual event and in 2026 we will have it again, starting sometimes towards the end of March running up till May, and this time we are looking at going towards the Southeast Asia (region)... So this is an annual event that we will carry forward".

The IPRD is the apex-level flagship international outreach event of the Indian Navy, hosted in partnership with the National Maritime Foundation (NMF). It brings together strategic leaders, policymakers, diplomats and maritime experts from across the Indo-Pacific and beyond to tackle pressing security and development issues in an integrated maritime region.

Experts from nearly 20 countries are taking part in the three-day event.

"The proceedings of the conference of the dialogue will certainly be drawn up, because there are about 30 odd experts who are speaking at the conference over the three days, and the idea that these experts will share with us, will be formulated into the proceedings of the conference and from this we will derive action points," the vice admiral said.

Some of the "actionable areas" would be applicable directly to the Indian Navy and the Navy will take this feedback and take steps forward to do things, and some of it will also be in the form of "advice or recommendations to the government of India", he added.

"But they are not just for India. There are also takeaways for the participating nations, because they will also, having contributed and participated in the conference, would get some feedback on which they can act," the DCNS said. PTI KND KVK KVK