Visakhapatnam: In pursuance of India's 'Act East' Policy, Indian Naval Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt arrived at Muara, Brunei as part of their deployment in South East Asia on Monday.

During the stay at Muara, the crew of both the ships will participate in various bilateral professional interactions with Royal Brunei Navy.

The exercise will provide an opportunity to both the navies to enhance inter-operability, gain from best practices and develop common understanding of procedures for Maritime Security Operations. The harbour interactions and exercises at sea aim to consolidate the strong bond shared by the two navies and would be another step towards strengthening India-Brunei defence relations. The bilateral exercise would conclude with a passage exercise with Royal Brunei Navy at sea on August.

INS Shivalik and Kadmatt are the latest indigenously designed and built, multi-role guided missile stealth frigate and anti-submarine corvette respectively, and form part of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command. The two ships are equipped with a versatile array of weapons and sensors, can carry multi-role helicopters, and represent the maturation of India's warship-building capabilities.

From Brunei, the ships will head to Guam to participate in exercise MALABAR-21 with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the United States Navy (USN), according to an Indian Navy release.