Realizing the growing relevance of “cooperative maritime diplomacy” in contemporary geopolitical environment, Pakistan Navy has also been making tremendous efforts not only in securing Pakistan’s maritime frontiers but also in fathering Pakistan’s foreign policy objectives through cooperative engagements with the friendly states. The conduct of non-block multinational naval exercises like “Aman-2021” and the good will visits of Pakistan Navy Ships to various ports around the globe are the notable examples in this regard. These cooperative engagements are aimed at strengthening defense cooperation with the navies of the other states by conducting joint exercises, sharing experiences regarding maritime security operations, conducting joint search and rescue operations, and providing humanitarian relief. The visits of Pakistan Navy Ships to the various ports around the world for joint exercises and humanitarian assistance, also called Overseas Deployments (OSD), have remained very instrumental in enhancing brotherly relations with the host nations and expand bilateral cooperation in various domains of maritime affairs.
Owing to the continent’s tremendous economic potential, enormous natural resources, attractive investment prospects, and the available human resource, Africa is being termed as the “Continent of the Future”. Although, Pakistan shares cordial relations with African states, however, the bilateral trade with these remained significantly meager. After the adoption of Government of Pakistan’s “Engage Africa” policy of 2019, Pakistan Navy has taken considerable diplomatic and joint security initiatives, in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Pakistan, to enhance cooperative engagements with African nations. In this regard, Pakistan Navy HADR Missions to Africa since 2019 are being undertaken under the aforementioned policy. Since November 2019, Pakistan Navy Ships have visited more than sixteen ports of various African countries including Morrocco, Mauritania, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Seychelles, Benin, Djibouti, Tunisia and Sudan, for joint Maritime Exercises and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations (HADR).
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