The second edition of Goa Maritime Symposium – a forum towards fostering friendly relations with the maritime neighbours – was inaugurated by the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba PVSM, AVSM, ADC, at INS Mandovi at Goa on October 16, 2018. The ‘Naval War College Journal’, an academic compendium with ideas and papers from writers and thinkers on maritime strategy and security, was also released on the occasion by the CNS. Welcoming the delegates to the seminar, Admiral Lanba reiterated the importance of cooperative engagement to promote maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
The theme of the seminar, this year was ‘Building Stronger Maritime Partnerships in IOR’. The deliberations were focused on capacity building among IOR Navies to tackle emerging maritime threats, in addition to discussing cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner maritime agencies.
Renowned national and international speakers articulated their views on these crucial issues, followed by theme based discussions. Eminent scholars and practitioners who spoke on the occasion included, Admiral (Dr) Jayanath Colombage (Retd.) from Sri Lanka, Jane Chan Git Yin from Singapore, Captain Verghese Mathews (India) and Prof Dattesh D P Parulekar (India). Dr Jabin Jacob and RAdm Sudarshan Shrikhande (Retd) moderated the subsequent theme based discussions.
The international seminar was attended by delegates from many countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mauritius, Sri-Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, etc. Country specific deliberations by senior naval officers from all the participating countries were also held with active sharing of experiences, concerns and perspectives of their respective countries.
Debuted in November 2016, the Goa Maritime Symposium aims at establishing academic excellence as well as sharing of ideas among India’s maritime neighbours by facilitating interaction between senior representatives of navies and maritime agencies in the IOR. Goa Maritime Symposium plays a constructive role in bringing together stakeholders involved in evolving strategies, policies and implementation mechanisms in the maritime domain
