India postpones MILAN 2020 multilateral exercise due to coronavirus concerns

The Indian Navy’s multilateral exercise ‘MILAN 2020’, scheduled to be conducted by the Indian Navy from March 18 to 28 in Visakhapatnam, has been postponed owing to the spread of coronavirus that had claimed over 3,000 lives across the globe.

The event has been postponed, keeping the safety of the participants from 30 Navies (including US, Russia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, South Korea, the UK, Australia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Iran, Sri Lanka, Thailand) and travel restrictions imposed due to the spread of COVID-19.

According to the officials of the Indian Navy, “Due to the great response from the participating navies from around the world, the conduct of MILAN 2020 is going to be scheduled at a later convenient date.”

The focus of such a huge exercise this year was to improve not only maritime cooperation with friendly nations but also to work on interoperability. There has been structured initiatives with countries including in the Indian Ocean region including maritime awareness, training, capacity building etc.