Context: The Navy is set to hold the 12th President’s Fleet Review (PFR) on February 21 at Visakhapatnam and few days from that it will host the largest multilateral exercise in this region in which 46 countries have been invited.
Exercise Milan

• Milan began in 1995 and is held biennially and brings together Navies of all the countries in the region.
• It has so far been held at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar but is now being shifted to Visakhapatnam which offers more infrastructure as well as sea space for the exercise.
• It has several themes such as anti-submarine warfare among others along with deliberations, including by subject matter experts.

About Fleet Review

• A Fleet Review is usually conducted once during the tenure of the President.
• The first PFR was held in 1953 for the first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
• Since Independence 11 PFRs have been conducted by the Navy, of which two have been International Fleet Reviews in 2011 and 2016.
• In terms of significance, the Navy’s Presidential review is second only to the Republic Day Parade.

Aims and Objective

• To promote collective responsibilities of maritime security for ensuring safe and secure seas.
• To imbibe best practices and procedures and enable doctrinal learning in the maritime domain through professional interaction between friendly navies.

Key Significance of this exercise

• There has been huge increase in the Indian Navy’s engagements in the Indo-Pacific with several countries keen on exercising with India. 
• Over the last few years, India has signed a series of logistics support agreements and white shipping agreements with a series of countries as part of efforts to improve the operational turnaround and improve logistics of the Indian armed forces in the region and also improve Maritime Domain Awareness. 
• These agreements have been very helpful in significantly improving operational turnaround, officials acknowledge.
• Such type of exercises brings together Navies of all the countries in the region.

By: Shubham Tiwari