Indian Navy’s ‘MILAN’ 2018 To Be Held at Andaman & Nicobar Islands

The first MILAN was held in 1995 with five participating nations and since then the event has been held every two years except in 2001, 2005 and 2016.

The Indian Navy’s biennial gathering of friendly navies to build friendship and mutual understanding will be held this year from March 6 at Port Blair. It is an forum to discuss common concerns in the Indian Ocean Region and also help forge co-operation initiatives. The forum began in 1995 and 8 such gatherings have been held since then.

MILAN 2018 is being conducted under the overall command of the Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) on behalf of the Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy.

It has evolved from an initiative of the Indian Navy in the early nineties which aimed to create a forum for the littoral navies of the region to exchange thoughts in the area of maritime cooperation and ‘Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief’ (HADR). It is deemed to be an effective platform for social, cultural and professional interactions and promoting camaraderie, maritime cooperation’s and inter-operability during humanitarian missions.

The first MILAN was held in 1995 with five participating nations; India, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Since then the event has been held every two years except in 2001, 2005 and 2016.

This year the participating navies would be from Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and new inclusions for MILAN 2018 include Brunei, Mozambique, Oman, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Timor Leste and Vietnam.