CHENNAI: In coordinated action off Chennai coast on Monday, Indian and Japanese Coast Guard ships rescued a merchant vessel from pirates. Acting on an input, a Bell-212 type helicopter that belongs to the Japanese Coast Guard Ship - JCGS Settsu first surveyed the area in the Bay of Bengal, where the vessel was said to be hijacked, and passed information about the presence of pirates onboard the merchant vessel to Indian Coast Guard vessel ICGS Vishwast, that was patrolling the territory.After getting confirmation of the pirate’s presence, both the Coast Guard vessels, in close coordination with their onboard helicopters and interceptor boats, launched a combined mission and finally rescued the vessel from the pirates.The rescue of the merchant vessel off the Chennai coast was one of the joint-exercises conducted by the Indo-Japanese Coast Guard vessels under codename ‘Sahyog Kaijin-XI’.Vice-Admiral MP Muralidharan, the Director General, Indian Coast Guard and Hisayasu Suzuki, Commandant, Japan Coast Guard, witnessed the joint exercise along with their Inspector General SP Sharma, Commander of Coast Guard Region (East).Besides the rescue mission, operation of Indian Coast Guard helicopters from Japan Coast Guard vessel and vice-versa, transferring of mail by helicopters between ICGS Vishwast and JCGS Settsu, pollution response, life-raft drop and search and rescue were part of the joint exercise.In addition, Indian Coast Guard ships, Chetak helicopters and Dornier aircrafts demonstrated their prowess before the Japanese delegation came along with the Commandant Suzuki.The exercise culminated in an impressive steam past by the ships and fly past by the Chetak helicopters and Dornier aircrafts wherein the crew of the participating units saluted the heads of the two Coast Guards onboard ICGS Vishwast.Speaking to reporters onboard Vishwast, both the heads of Coast Guards expressed hope that such joint exercises would help both the countries to improve their cooperation in dealing with sea piracy.
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