|||MAG||| April 18 - 24, 2009
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Together
for Peace
 Pakistan builds confidence in antiterrorism at sea by hosting the Aman 09 multinational naval exercise.
Chinese missile destroyer Guangzhou arrived at the Karachi naval shipyard on March 5 for the Aman 09 multinational naval exercise.
Under the slogan ‘Together for Peace’, the exercise, led by the Pakistan navy was conducted in North Arabian Sea from March 5 to 14. It consisted of harbour and sea phases, aimed at the development and improvement of Response Tactics, Techniques and Procedures, or RTTP, with a focus on combating terrorism.
Naval ships, aircraft and special operations teams from Australia, Bangladesh, China, France, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey, Britain and the US participated in the event, while 29 countries including Russia, Brazil and Indonesia attended as observers.
 When the flags of 11 countries and the Pakistan navy began to lower at the naval dockyard in Karachi on March 14, the 10-day Aman 09 multinational naval exercise came to a formal end.
The exercise included harbour and sea phases. The harbour phase consisted of a pre-sail conference, safety briefs and a coordination meeting, while during the sea phase warships, mine hunters and auxiliary ships along with naval aircraft, submarines and marine forces conducted extensive exercises in the North Arabian Sea and coastal areas.
“The contributions and participation of the international community were the biggest highlights of this year’s exercise.
Fight Common Challenges
 Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Noman Bashir speaks about significance of Aman 09.
Q: What is the significance of Aman 09?
Noman Bashir: The idea of the exercise is to give participating countries an opportunity to work together and to fight the common enemies we face at sea.
The challenges at sea have increased. Two years ago, the piracy issue in the waters off Somalia was not as serious as it is today. More and more countries trust the Pakistan navy, because we are a professional force and they join the exercise to work together to address these challenges.
The exercise helps us operate together, understand each other and develop tactics to meet emerging challenges. Illegal activities such as piracy, terrorism, drug trafficking and smuggling affect everybody. We come together to fight against our common enemies.
Q: What are the implications of Aman 09 for Pakistan?
Pakistan needs to hold more exercises and build up the navy to have more platforms, more ships and more submarines so that we can contribute more to international peace-keeping efforts.
Q: How do you view the role that the Pakistan navy plays in fighting against terrorism?
The role of the navy is very important because terrorists might take action on land, but they need to move to areas that are unprotected and unguarded via sea. It is very easy for terrorists to move from one place to another and carry out terrorist attacks. Guarding the sea requires a lot of resources. No single country can tackle the problem by itself.
The Pakistan navy is committed to fighting all common challenges in the area. Now the added challenge in the area is piracy. There are a number of countries engaged in anti-piracy operations, and the navy has been granted commissions from the government to spend on resources, so we can participate in the international community with everybody else.
Cooperation at Sea
Commander Li Ping, Captain of Guangzhou, shared his views on the  significance of Aman 09 for the Chinese navy in an interview just days before the sea phase exercise began. Excerpts:
Q: How do you view China’s participation in Aman 09?
Li Ping: Aman is an Urdu word meaning ‘peace’. This is the second exercise in the Aman series. The first was held in Karachi in 2007, when 23 ships including two Chinese guided-missile frigates, Lianyungang and Sanming, participated in the weeklong exercise. The participation of missile destroyer Guangzhou, in my opinion, is significant in four major ways.
First, a grander image of the Chinese navy – first-class equipment and well-trained soldiers – will be presented through the exercise.
Second, China is a responsible country in maintaining regional and international security and stability. Our participation in the exercise will be a testament to China’s determination and confidence in fighting against terrorism and intensifying international cooperation.
Third, it will help the Chinese navy ‘go global’ to share experience, enhance cooperation and build mutual trust with its counterparts. The substance of the military exercises the Chinese navy has attended, including the Aman series and the Peace Mission 2005 Sino-Russian joint military exercise, is ‘peace’. The military relationships that China maintains with other countries lie on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, which means mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefits, and peaceful co-existence. The major purpose of a military exercise is to consolidate friendship, increase exchanges, jointly address issues and identify solutions. Aman 09 will enhance our capabilities in coping with changes in military technology, multifaceted security challenges as well as diverse military missions. Non-traditional military tasks, which diverse from the military’s traditional tasks of confrontation and war, range from anti-terrorism and anti-piracy to international humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Fourth, this military exercise will enhance friendships – between China and Pakistan, and between China and other participant countries.
Q: What is Aman 09’s significance for the China-Pakistan relationship?
China and Pakistan are all-weathered friends. Sending Guangzhou, our most advanced homemade destroyer, showcases China’s full respect for Pakistan’s invitation. We are willing to continuously push forward state-to-state and military-to-military relations and consolidate the China-Pakistan friendship. We believe that the Aman 09 multinational naval exercise will play a positive role in pushing forward and deepening bilateral relations at all levels.
Q: What will be the implications of Aman 09 for the Chinese naval escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast?
The anti-piracy action taken by a Chinese naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast was initiated by the United Nations, invited by the Somali government and approved by the Central Military Commission of China. Not surprisingly, lack of experience has been a problem since this is the Chinese navy’s first-ever overseas escort mission. We should act in accordance with the UN Charter and international law and gain experience in how to handle problems properly. This will require more exchanges and cooperation among nations. |
It illustrates that maritime security is a cooperative affair,” says Asaf Humayun, Vice Admiral of Pakistan navy. “People from all over the world have come to demonstrate how cooperative maritime security works.”
Humayun said Pakistan defines the northern shores of the Arabian Sea and is located at the crossroads between Arab, Persian, Central Asian, Chinese and Indian civilizations; most of the world’s oil flows in the area, which is also a key corridor in the worldwide energy supply chain. More importantly, the piracy issue at Aman 07 was not as serious as it is today.
“The biggest contribution a country can make to maritime security is to remain cooperative and not consider the sea its national domain. Countries should help each other,” Humayun said.
“The Pakistan navy contributes very efficiently, although we are very small,” he continued. “I see it as a weightlifter who is lifting four or five times his own weight. For example, we sent one ship permanently to the international maritime campaign plan, and also offered to contribute a ship and an aircraft near the waters off Somalia. We’ll definitely continue to contribute more to regional maritime security and stability. We have decided to hold the Aman exercise again and we hold it every two years.
In addition, the Third International Maritime Conference on “Maritime Threats and Opportunities in the 21st Century” was held at the National Center for Maritime Policy Research, Bahria University in Karachi, as part of the biennial Aman series.
“The conference is very useful and informative because every region faces the same problems in terms of non-traditional threats at sea, such as piracy, illegal migration, drug trafficking, typhoons, tsunamis and so forth. Security cooperation is one way to address it,” Captain Patchara Pumpiched, the Royal Thai navy’s observer at Aman 09, said, advocating more efforts in regional cooperation against non-traditional threats.
“A harmonious Indian ocean is crucial for regional security and stability. As the frontier in the fight against terrorism, Pakistan has been making efforts to combat terrorists since the 9/11 attacks,” said Wang Dehua, President of the Special Commission for South Asian Studies, Shanghai Society for International Relations.
“The experience Pakistan has gained since then is valuable. I think Aman 09 exercise will help accumulate more experience in anti-terrorism at sea and frighten the pirates in Somalia as well.”
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