On August 25, in the central Mediterranean, the frigate Carabiniere Navy trained with three Japanese military ships - destroyers Asagiri e Setoyuki and the training ship Kashima - and with the Canadian ship Charlottetown. The latter participates, together with the Italian ship, in the NATO operation Active Endeavor.
On board the training ship Kashima, where they board young officers who have recently completed training courses for a training campaign that takes them around the world in about six months, Admiral Hidetoshi Iwasaki, commander of the Japan Training Squadron composed of the three Japanese ships, it received the commanders of the frigates Carabiniere e Charlottetown for a comparison on the operations in progress in the Mediterranean Sea.
The admiral confronted the commander of the Carabiniere on the major naval operations involving the country in the Mediterranean area: Safe Sea, the national operation launched in 2015 to protect national interests in the Central-Southern Mediterranean and ensure adequate levels of maritime safety and EUNAVFOR MED operation Sophia, the operation of the European Union which serves to prohibit the network of criminal networks associated with the smuggling and exploitation of migrants across the Mediterranean and to reduce the flow of migrants by sea.
The admiral also showed interest in the SAR organization (Search and Rescue - search and rescue) of the Mediterranean Sea and the V-RMTC (Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Center), a maritime traffic control system born of international cooperation between marinas of different countries, on the initiative of the Italian Navy, which is based on sharing data from military units at sea and coastal radars.
The occasion was also a moment of exchange and discussion between the crews of the five ships together at sea. The team of specialists of the marine brigade Saint Mark instead they simulated the control of a suspect merchant, approaching one of the Japanese units and simulating an inspection.
The purpose of these exercises is to develop interoperability between different naval devices, to increase maritime safety and guarantee freedom of navigation.
