The Maldives Coast Guard, together with counterparts from India and Sri Lanka, will begin a cooperative trilateral exercise called Dosti today, the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) said.
Exercise Dosti is a combined military exercise between the Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka that intends to develop military cooperation among the three nations and practise trilateral collaboration in various marine mishaps.
The MNDF stated that Exercise Dosti-15 will take place from now until November 24, however it did not specify where the joint exercise will take place. This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the start of the biennial military exercise.
The Indian Coast Guard’s ICGS Vajra and ICGS Apoorva, as well as the Sri Lanka Coast Guard’s SLCGS Suraksha, arrived in the Maldives for the 5-day trilateral exercise, according to the MNDF.
The biennial military exercises began 30 years ago in 1991 with the MNDF Coast Guard and the Indian Coast Guard, with the Sri Lanka Coast Guard following in 2012. The last drill took place in November 2018.