Pakistan Navy ship ASLAT warmly welcomed as it arrived at Her Majesty’s Portsmouth Naval base

LONDON, Jul 18 (APP):Pakistan Navy warship ‘ASLAT’ and its fleet was warmly greeted here at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth when it arrived at the port on July 18 (Wednesday).
The ship was received by Syed Ibne Abbas, the High Commissioner for Pakistan to United Kingdom (UK) and senior Pakistan Navy and Royal Navy officials including, Commodore Raja Rab Nawaz, Defence and Naval Advisor at Pakistan High Commission, Captain Bill Oliphant and David Hilton MBE, in the presence of local and international media.
A smart contingent of the Royal Marines Band performed on the occasion to receive the ship and its personnel.
The visit of the ship to UK, which was happening after 13 years, was aimed at enhancing bilateral cooperation between the two navies.
The ship would also participate in a bilateral exercise with the Royal Navy in the British sea after the port visit.
Commodore Muhammad Faisal Abbasi SI (M), the Mission Commander overseas deployment
of the ship on the occasion, briefed and elaborated the media about the objectives of the visit of the ship.
He said that PNS ASLAT was primarily designed with the help of China, but from the top to bottom it was constructed at Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works on April 17,2013 some five years ago.
He added that this modern and frontline frigate ,together with other ships of her class formed the mainstay of Pakistan Navy (PN).
Commodore Muhammad Faisal said the ship had a formidable platform equipped with state of the art weapons and sensors.
“PNS ASLAT serves Pakistan in multiple capacities ranging from normal peace time operations to sustained combat at sea”, he remarked.
He termed the Pak-UK relationship as warm and historic, adding, “We enjoy very cordial relations with UK at political, diplomatic and military levels”.
As far as relationship between Pakistan Navy and Royal Navy was concerned there were also very warm and very cordial.
Commodore Abbasi said, “I would like to say that since Pakistan Navy had its origin in Royal Navy and we have a lot of inspirations from the professional standards of the latter”.
He said after 13 years, a Pakistan Navy ship was visiting UK port as Pakistan was busy in Indian oceans and Gulf of Aden for counter piracy and maritime security operations.
“As you all know we have been part of multi national coalitions since 2004 and I would not hesitate to say that we were deployed 24/7 or almost 365 days of the year in coalition operations and Pakistan Navy had the highest contribution in multinational coalition led by the United State of America and we were second largest contributors after the USA”, he remarked.
He said Pakistan Navy had played an important role in the regional maritimes security controls in order to contribute towards international efforts in combating piracy in pursuance of UN security council resolutions.
“We remain committed to the global peace and security specially for mariners and navigators at sea”, he remarked.
Commodore Abbasi said this visit of ASLAT ship would be followed by Pakistan Navy and Royal Navy would participate in maiden bilateral exercise in the British sea.
He added that for the past three years the royal navy ship was visiting Karachi every year.
This visit of ASLAT ship at Portmouth UK would help further fostering the professional capabilities of both the navies and help streamline the procedures learned from each others professional experiences and would be a rewarding exercise.
He thanked the host Portsmouth UK (Royal Navy) , government and people of UK for their warm wellcome.