Joint naval exercise serves to increase Iran’s legitimacy - analysis

Iran, Russia, and Oman began joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean this week, with Iranian state media reporting that Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Qatar, and Bangladesh also participated as observers. In these drills, various ships practiced several scenarios at sea, including putting out a fire on a vessel.

The Islamic Republic benefits from the opportunity for its relatively small navy to work closely with other navies, and it gives the Iranian regime greater international legitimacy. In recent years, Iran has increased its joint naval drills with Russia, and Iran has recently conducted joint training with Oman.

Iran’s R.-Adm. Mostafa Tajeddini, at a ceremony in Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Saturday, said “the participating vessels and units would enact different scenarios, including containing fire, carrying out search and rescue operations, and removing oil from the sea surface during the drill,” according to Iranian-state media IRNA. 

IMEX exercises

The drill is part of the IMEX series of exercises, which began in 2022 when the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) conducted the first edition of its IONS Maritime Exercise 2022 (IMEX-22).

At the time, Naval Technology reported that the “IMEX 22 maiden edition was held at Goa and in [the] Arabian Sea between 26 and 30 March. A total of 15 out of 25 IONS members participated in the exercise. The participating member nations were France, Australia, the UAE, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Oman, Mauritius, Mozambique, Qatar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.”

According to IRNA, the 2024 edition of this joint drill kicked off in Iran. “Russia and Oman have sent their flotillas of warships to take part in the joint drill along with the forces of the Iranian Navy and the Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as the country’s coastguards.”

Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Qatar, and Bangladesh sent representatives to observe part of the drill in Iranian waters, illustrating how Saudi Arabia and Iran are completing their process of reconciliation, which began two years ago. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia just earlier this month. 

Tehran is trying to illustrate how it can help put out fires at sea, conduct search and rescue operations, and remove oil from the sea surface. Iran should know a lot about this, since the Iran-backed Houthi proxy has been attacking ships in the Red Sea, setting them on fire, causing search and rescue disasters, and leaving oil on the surface of the sea. In this sense, Iran serves as both the arsonist and the fire department, cleaning up the very damage it is causing.

Iran is spreading war in the region, yet it speaks to the countries of the IMEX drill in terms of “peace, friendship, solidarity, and collective cooperation,” according to IRNA.

The Iranians also talked up the concept of “sustainable collective security and expand multilateral cooperation among the participating countries to safeguard peace in the region,” IRNA reported, noting that “representatives of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Bangladesh, and India, who were present at the Jamaran destroyer, closely watched the various stages of the exercise.” 

The Iranians said that the event “will serve as a platform for Iran to demonstrate its naval strengths and expand its relations with nations invested in the safety and security of the Indian Ocean,” according to the report.

Chinese Xinhua media reported that “Russia and Oman sent their flotillas of warships to take part in the joint drill along with” IRGC forces, which is noteworthy because the IRGC is labeled a terrorist group by the US and is noted for harassing shipping, not helping ships.

The IMEX drill is different than the similarly named, US-backed IMX drill, also a naval exercise. In 2023, the IMX drill included combined exercises with “7,000 personnel, 35 ships, and 30 unmanned and artificial intelligence systems from more than 50 nations and international organizations,” the US Navy said at the time. 

The list of countries that participate in IMX includes Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Comoros, Denmark, Djibouti, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey, Thailand, the UAE, UK, USA, Uruguay, and Yemen. 

There is some overlap with the IMEX drill, though, because Saudi Arabia participated in both, as did Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Thailand. What this shows is that Iran can increasingly move itself into an orbit of countries that are also close to the US even as Iran and its proxies wreak havoc at sea and target American shipping.