KARACHI (Sputnik) — Severomorsk represents Russia for the first time at the ongoing Multinational Naval Exercise AMAN-2017 near Pakistan's port of Karachi in the Arabian Sea. The drills are aimed at enhancing efforts on combating piracy and terrorism and protecting the international trade routs.
"I am so happy that we have Russia with us participating in AMAN-17 for the first time. We are very, very happy. Russia will be always invited for our future exercises including AMAN series. We also had two bilateral exercises before and we look forward for more exercises whenever it is convenient for both sides," Zakaullah said.
"We have discussed it but the schedule is not finalized yet," he said.
The AMAN-17 is the fifth Multinational Exercise of AMAN series, held in Pakistan since 2007. Navies of 37 countries are participating in AMAN-17, including Australia, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, the Unites States and Japan. The drills are being held on February 10-14 in the Arabian Sea off Karachi.
