Indian Coastguard vessel ICGS Samarth which was on a four-day visit of Qatar left Hamad Port on Wednesday morning. The 105m long ship, berthed at the newly built port, was the second Indian coastguard ship to visit Qatar this year.
The Commanding Officer of ICGS Samarth, DIG KR Deepak Kumar called on Qatar Coasts and Border Security Department director, Brigadier Ali A S al-Bedeed during the ship's visit at the Coast Guard Headquarters and had a fruitful interaction with him. He also met senior Qatari Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) Officers at the Naval base.
Other highlights of the port call included cross deck ship visits by QENF and QCG personnel to ICGS Samarth and by ICGS Samarth’s crew to QENF ships. In addition, sporting fixtures between the host Navy and visiting Indian ship further strengthened the bonds of friendship between the two countries, according to an Indian embassy communique, which also added that
A total of 167 children and 17 teachers from various Indian Schools in Doha also visited the ship, made in India by Goa Shipyard Limited.
The school children were greeted by a friendly and professional ship’s crew thereby making their visit educative and enjoyable.
A joint passage exercise between Indian and Qatar Coast Guard ships was conducted on Tuesday. Apart from carrying out detailed planning by the operations teams of participating ships, professional exchanges and briefings were also undertaken to imbibe the best practices being followed by each side.
The sea phase consisted of various maritime drills and manoeuvres at sea as well as SAREX (Search and Rescue Exercise) and Steam Past.
The Commanding Officer of ICGS Samarth expressed his gratitude to the Qatar Coast Guard and Qatari Emiri Naval Forces for making ICGS Samarth’s visit to the State of Qatar successful and professionally enriching.
