Maritime Exercise SITMEX- 21

Table of Contents

SITMEX Exercise-21: Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
GS Paper 3: Internal Security- Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

Indian Naval Ship (INS) Karmuk, an indigenously built Missile Corvette is participating in the 3rd edition of India, Singapore and Thailand Trilateral Maritime Exercise SITMEX – 21 in the Andaman Sea.
Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is being represented by RSS Tenacious, a Formidable Class Frigate and Royal Thai Navy (RTN) by His Majesty’s Thailand Ship (HTMS) Thayanchon, a Khamrosin Class Anti-submarine Patrol Craft.

Background: The Prime Minister of India, at Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 announced the conduct of a trilateral naval exercise between India, Singapore, and Thailand.
- The maiden edition of SITMEX was hosted by IN off Port Blair in September 2019. RSN hosted the second edition of the exercise in November 2020.
- The 2021 edition of the exercise is being hosted by RTN in the Andaman Sea.
About Exercise SITMEX- 21: Exercise SITMEX is being conducted since 2019 between India, Singapore and Thailand.
- SITMEX Exercise is an annual tri-lateral maritime exercise.
Objective of Exercise SITMEX- 21: Exercise SITMEX- 21 is being conducted with an aim to enhance mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices between Indian Navy (IN), RSN and RTN.

The SITMEX-21 exercise is being conducted as a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ exercise in view of COVID-19 restrictions and highlights growing synergy, coordination and cooperation in the maritime domain between the three friendly navies.
The two days of maritime SITMEX-21 drills will witness the three navies engaged in various tactical exercises including naval manoeuvres and surface warfare drills.
SITMEX-21 will fortify the long-standing bond of friendship and further enhance the cooperation between the participating navies towards augmenting the overall maritime security in the region.