In February, India hosted the twelfth edition of the Milan 2024 naval exercise, aimed at “strengthening operational interaction between friendly navies and gaining experience in multinational operations”. In addition to Indian naval units (including its two aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya), around twenty ships and several aircraft converged on the Visakhapatnam port.
France participated with Atlantic 2 maritime patrol aircraft, as did the United States (with the “destroyer” USS Halsey), Australia (with the frigate HMS Waramunga)… and Russia, which mobilized the cruiser Varyag, frigate Marshall, for the occasion. Chapochnikov (equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, Priory) and replenishment tanker Boris Butoma.
As the Milan 2024 exercises ended on February 27, three Russian ships assigned to the Pacific Fleet remained in the region. On 4 March, the frigate Marshal Chapochnikov made a stopover during the DIMDEX arms fair in Qatar. They then took part in exercises planned with China and Iran in the Indian Ocean, focusing on “security of maritime economic activities” and “liberation of ships hijacked by pirates”.
While the Houthi rebels (aligned with Iran) have assured that their attacks on commercial maritime traffic around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait will protect ships linked to Russian (and Chinese) interests, the “Varyag” and “Marshal Shaposhnikov” are currently sailing. in the red sea. This fact was announced by the Russian Pacific Fleet on March 28.
The presence of these two Russian ships in the region is likely to raise some questions in the context of the naval operations “Guardian of Prosperity” and “Aspides” launched by the United States and the European Union (EU) respectively to protect them. Commercial traffic against an attack launched from Yemen by Houthi rebels. The attacks, in addition, benefit Russia, which has recorded a 40% increase in the transport of goods by rail between Asia and Europe.
In any case, the reason for the deployment of the frigate “Marshal Chapochnikov” in the Red Sea is known: the ship actually arrived at the Eritrean port of Massawa, “as part of a long-distance sea voyage », clarified. Russian Defense Ministry on March 29. According to its Eritrean counterpart , the stopover, which is scheduled to last five days, is intended to celebrate thirty years of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Asmara.As for Varyag, his whereabouts are currently unknown.
It is possible that this mission will be similar to the one carried out by frigate Admiral Tributes, “Boris Butoma” and already, “Varyag” between December 2021 and November 2022. After a stopover in Cochin (India), the training headed for the Mediterranean. In July, the cruiser and frigate joined the intelligence vessel Vasili Tatishchev in the Adriatic Sea, where no Russian ship had been seen since 1995, and the NATO-led “deliberate force” operation in Bosnia. -Herzegovina.
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