VISAKHAPATNAM: Five Russian naval ships, including one missile cruiser, two destroyers, one tanker and one ocean-going tug, will arrive here for taking part in the joint naval exercise of India and Russia from Friday to October 20.

The joint exercise, christened INDRA-2005, will take off on the eastern seaboard off the Visakhapatnam coast after the first Indo-Russian bilateral naval exercise INDRA-2003 held in 2003.

INDRA-2005 will be witnessed at sea by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov on October 18.

The visiting delegation will include Commander-in-Chief of Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir V. Masorin and a number of high-ranking officials.

Wider scope

The exercise is primarily aimed at enhancing mutually-beneficial cooperative engagement between the navies of the two countries.

The name INDRA is derived from India and Russia.

According to a spokesman of the Eastern Naval Command, INDRA-2005 has considerably wider scope than the last exercise.

The large fleet of Russian vessels will anchor at Visakhapatnam Naval Base on Friday. Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Sergey Viktorovich Avramenko will embark on the missile cruiser `Varyag.' The officers and sailors of the participating units along with the staff of Eastern Naval Command will engage in various activities in harbour, including the pre-sailing conference on Friday and Saturday.

The exercises at sea will include various surface firing, air defence and anti-submarine warfare performances from October 17 to 19.

Debrief for the exercises is planned here on October 20.

The exercise is expected to give a new dimension to the relationship between the armed forces of the two countries towards building mutual trust and better understanding of each other.

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