Indian Navy doing ‘excellent job’, piracy rising due to Red Sea tensions: Italian Vice Admiral

The Italian Navy’s Carrier Strike Group, consisting of the aircraft carrier ITS Cavour and the frigate ITS Alpino, docked at Berth 9 of Mormugao Port Tuesday for a port call. The units of the Italian Navy Fleet, currently engaged in the first deployment in the Indo-Pacific region, moored at Mormugao from Tuesday to Friday.

“Though there are other areas in the world where the problem is still significant, such as the Gulf of Guinea and Strait of Malacca. What we are seeing in the Somali basin in particular is that with the reduction of flow of commerce through the Red Sea owing to the threat of Houthis in the area, most ships have been diverted to the route off the Cape of Good Hope…and this, in some way, might have fuelled again a comeback of piracy in the area,” he said.

According to Vice Admiral Carolis, the main focus of the Italian Navy is in the Mediterranean.

“We are quite busy there. As a fleet commander, I have an average of 40 naval vessels including submarines operating in the Mediterranean, and also outside. In the Red Sea, there is an ongoing crisis and shipping is threatened. All the commerce that flows through the Red Sea gets into the Mediterranean. So, we are committed to undertake maritime security operations to ensure a safe transit, for not just Italian-flagged ships, but for all units that are connected with EU [European Union] countries,” he said.

According to Carolis, the Indian Navy is “doing an excellent job” when it comes to anti-piracy operations.

“At the end of the day, it’s called the Indian Ocean…not by chance,” he said, adding that the European Union (EU) remains committed to fighting piracy through joint naval and maritime cooperation exercises.

Rear Admiral Giancarlo Ciappina, the Italian Navy Carrier Strike Group Commander, said the Italian Navy and the Indian Navy will engage in bilateral maritime exercises on October 5 and October 6 off India’s western coast with the aim to build interoperability.

The two-day exercises will focus on air defence, maritime manoeuvres and joint operations between the air arms of the two navies.

“We have been receiving some subject matter experts from the Indian Navy and have been hosting them onboard Cavour. We have been exchanging information and planning some activities to do at sea on October 5 and October 6. It will involve two carriers and integration of air wings, some exercises in air defence and some manoeuvring at sea. We will have an exchange of personnel on our ships to understand each other’s ways of flight and naval operations,” Ciappina said.