Published: February 6, 2010

PORT BLAIR: India kicked off Friday a 13-nation naval exercise off its Andaman archipelago it said was aimed at improving disaster management and not an attempt to form a security bloc.

The exercises are the biggest naval event off the India-administered island cluster since 2007 when a smaller exercise involving Australia, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States, riled giant neighbour China.

Under questioning at a seminar organised to coincide with the drill, India’s navy chief denied that the exercise was aimed at intimidating China, with which the country fought a brief border war more than four decades ago.

Verma said the drill, codenamed Milan, which means meeting in Hindi, was purely aimed at improving coordination among Indian Ocean navies and not an attempt to form any regional security alliance.

“It is not a multilateral exercise but more of coming together for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance,” Verma, host of the six-day drill, said in local capital Port Blair.

The navies of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand and Vietnam took part.

Eight nations sent nine warships while the remaining four were represented by senior naval officials. An unspecified number of Indian vessels are also part of the drill.

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Indo-Pak