Royal Thailand Navy delegation to visit Indian navy's Warship Design Bureau

A three-member delegation from the Royal Thailand Navy visited the Warship Design Bureau of the Indian Navy in New Delhi. The visit was held from 04-05th September 2023. The visit was aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two navies in ship design and construction as bilaterally decided by the 12th Indian Navy and Royal Thailand Navy.

The bilateral relations between both countries were established in 1947, soon after India’s independence from the British. India shares a long sea border with Thailand along the Andaman Sea. Since 2001, both countries have witnessed growing warmth, increasing economic and commercial, exchange of high-level visits and signing of various agreements leading to further strengthening of relations.

Royal Thai Navy delegation visit to India and Warship Design Bureau

The Royal Thai Navy visited India on 4th and 5th September 23. The visit aimed at enhancing bilateral and military ties between the two nations. The delegation visiting India was led by Captain Jakarin, Royal Thai Navy, Defence Attache and had an interaction with Rear Admiral IB Uthaiah, Director General WBD.

The representatives of the two nations examined a variety of aspects of shipbuilding and ship design. The Warship Design Bureau was described to the delegation. They were shown the development of India's domestic naval shipbuilding. Additionally, the locations where the ships were built were presented to them.

Additionally, they were given tours of various facilities, design tools, best practices in use, model testing capabilities, and the nation's domestic equipment manufacturing ecosystem. The team spoke with Warship Design Bureau subject matter specialists about several facets of ship design and shipbuilding. The party will also visit Goa Shipyard Limited to see the shipyard's varied construction techniques.

Also, both India and Thailand are members of many multilateral fora like ASEAN, the ASEAN regional forum, the East Asia Summit, sub-regional grouping BIMSTEC involving Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and trilateral transport linkages with Thailand, Myanmar and India. India is a member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue initiated by Thailand in 2002. Thailand has an embassy in New Delhi and consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

The Indian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy will also help each other in making close military relations, especially in the maritime region to counter China. Dragon’s aggressive methods in the Indian, Pacific and South China Sea regions affect all the countries in the region, especially India and Thailand. Both countries have a history of strong relations and in today’s time it is strategically important to counter China’s bully nature in the Indo-pacific region, and Indian Ocean as well as towards its neighbouring nations connected by land and this visit will bring out the best between both the navies and make the relations stronger.