A bilateral 'EXERCISE AYYILDIZ-2019' between Pakistan Navy's Special Service Group and Turkish Navy's Special Forces, "Su Alti Taarruzu", concluded at Karachi. Pakistan and Turkey enjoy strong bilateral relations based on foundations of brotherhood and friendship. Pakistani and Turkish defence forces interact regularly on various forums. Both the navies have been actively collaborating in various professional interactions, including multilateral and bilateral exercises.

The exercise included training in anti-terrorism, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism in the maritime domain, and intelligence-based operations.

The 12-day exercise was aimed at strengthening military relations, inter-operability and to exchange professional expertise of the special forces.

This was the 12^th exercise in the AYYILDIZ series, which is an annual feature between Pakistan and Turkey and reflects the strong bilateral military ties between the two countries.

Islamabad and Ankara have also collaborated on various defence forums and taken part in multilateral exercises.

Pakistan will also soon participate in joint drills with Russia. Moscow recently announced that ‘Friendship-2019’ will be held in Russia in early October.

“The joint exercise will be held with the aim of exchanging experience between military personnel, developing and strengthening military-technical cooperation between the two countries,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Vira Maritime