Russia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will conduct a naval exercise on Dec. 1-3 in the waters of Indonesia. It is the third of such ASEAN+1 maritime drill, after the ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise in 2018, and the ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise in 2019. The exercise is aimed at increasing interoperability between the ASEAN Member States Navies and Russian Navy to ensure the safety of maritime economic activity and civil navigation. The exercise will include Harbor Phase (virtually) and Sea Phase, will be held in the Indonesian territorial waters off the coast of North Sumatera, Indonesia.
The ASEAN-Russia Naval Exercise was approved during the two parties’ 4th summit last Oct. 28 via videoconference. ASEAN and Russia mark this year the 30th anniversary of their relations. Russia, China and the United States are among 11 dialogue partners of ASEAN. There is no immediate information on how many personnel and vessels will participate, but Russia said its navy will be represented by the Russian Pacific Fleet destroyer Admiral Panteleyev. It is planned that H.E. Army Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Indonesia, will order to start the exercise from the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev.
Admiral Panteleyev is an Udaloy-class destroyer (“large anti-submarine ship”) of the Russian Navy. She is named after Yuri Aleksandrovich Panteleyev. The Udaloy class, Russian designations Project 1155 Fregat and Project 11551 Fregat-M (Russian: ??????, ‘Fregat’ meaning Frigate), are series of anti-submarine guided missile destroyers built for the Soviet Navy, seven of which are currently in service with the Russian Navy. Twelve ships were built between 1980 and 1991, while the thirteenth ship built to a modified design, known as Udaloy II class, followed in 1999. They complement the Sovremenny-class destroyers in anti-aircraft and anti-surface warfare operations.
ASEAN officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is an economic union comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia. ASEAN has 10 ( Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) member states, one candidate (East Timor) member state, and one (Papua New Guinea) observer state. A number of countries had expressed an interest in becoming part of ASEAN such as Bangladesh, Fiji and Sri Lanka.
