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India, France practice anti-mine operations in Arabian Sea NEW DELHI (AFP) Feb 28, 2005 India and France were practising Monday their first joint anti-mine operations as part of naval exercises in the Arabian Sea off the coast of southern India, a French officer said Monday. The nine-day exercise, code-named "Varuna 2005" began Sunday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The leader of the French naval team, Captain Marechal, told reporters this was the first time the two navies had taken part together in "mine warfare exercises," the report said. Marechal said the Varuna exercises that began in 1998 within the framework of bilateral naval cooperation between India and France, had helped the two navies interact better. Last year, the exercises off the coast of the western tourist resort state of Goa focused on anti-marine and anti-submarine warfare. The French flotilla comprises two mine hunting ships "FNS Orion" and "FNS Aigle" besides a mine warfare command ship, the "FNS Loire", Marechal said. Three mine counter measure ships, the "INS Kozhikode", "INS Cannanore" and "INS Cuddalore", were representing the Indian Navy, the report said. About 250 Indian Naval personnel and over 300 French Naval personnel including four women, were participating in the exercise. "The French Navy has come here with latest equipment and we have to see how much we are going to gain by the bilateral exercise," said Captain R A Jaiswal, in charge of India's anti-submarine warfare school. "They are going to show us the equipment that we do not have, like ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), lasers and latest sonar," he added. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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