Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Jagaryan announced plans to hold a trilateral naval exercise in the middle of this month in the Indian Ocean.
"The next multilateral naval exercises will be held in the northern part of the Indian Ocean in mid-February 2021. During them, it is planned, among other things, to work out cooperation in conducting search and rescue operations and measures to ensure the safety of navigation," Levan Dzhagaryan said in an interview with RIA Novosti in response to a request to comment on the repetition of the exercises in the same format as it was in 2019.
Naval exercises of Russia, Iran and China under the name "Maritime Security Belt" were held at the end of 2019, following their results, the military of the Islamic Republic expressed confidence that the maneuvers will take place on a regular basis. The possibility of re-conducting the exercises in the Ministry of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran was previously associated with the situation with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.