Navy Chief to embark on 3-day UK visit tomorrow 

New Delhi [India], Mar 11 (ANI): Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and other top officials of the Navy will embark on a three-day visit to the United Kingdom, starting Tuesday (March 12). 
The upcoming visit of Admiral Lanba to the UK will integrate existing maritime cooperation initiatives as well as explore new avenues. It also aims to take forward the vision that was set forth during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK in November 2015.
During the three-day visit, Admiral Lanba is scheduled to hold discussions with the Chief of Defence Staff, UK in London and the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth. He is also scheduled to visit the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, RN Submarine Rescue Facility at Glasgow and interact with the organisers of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh.
In 1995, with the constitution of Indo-UK Defence Consultative Group (DCG) and the Group (MSG) a two-tier structure of cooperation was established to progress various areas of defence cooperation. In September 2004, the two countries had inked a pact to embark upon strategic partnership which prominently figured by defence cooperation.
The ‘Service-level Staff Talks’ forum is officially known as ‘Executive Steering Group’ which is the primary mechanism for enhancing cooperation between the two Armed forces. Indian Navy and Royal Navy are partners in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a Maritime Cooperation construct conceptualised and pioneered by Indian Navy in 2008. RN participated in the 10th-anniversary celebrations of IONS at Kochi in November 2018.
The bilateral naval exercise KONKAN is a significant operational link between the two navies and is held every year, alternately off the coast of India and UK.
The two navies also interact on a host of issues like training, doctrinal concepts and Maritime Domain Awareness. (ANI)