# France, South African Exercise Oxide underway

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2022/11/france-south-african-exercise-oxide-underway/
- Published: 2022-11-23T13:54:37+01:00
- Author: Sarah Lesedi

Exercise Oxide the biennial maritime exercise between South Africa and France began
on Thursday 17 November.

French naval patrol ship Le Malin (P701) arrived in Naval Base Simon’s Town from
it’s homeport in Reunion to participate.

According to [DefenceWeb’s Dean Wingrin](https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/franco-south-african-maritime-exercise-underway/),
Exercise Oxide aims to enhance co-operation and operational interoperability between
the two forces which sharess maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ) border.

This year’s Exercise Oxide is taking place around the False Bay area and the West
Coast of the Western Cape, will end on 28 November.

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The exercise will comprise of various maritime exercises, the main objective being
search and rescue. Other objectives include surveillance, disaster relief, hostage
negotiations and releases.

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Joint Task Force Commander, Captain (SAN) NK Goboza, noted that the objective for
this year is to conduct joint Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) exercises “
which is a current challenge to the maritime environment whereby we may be tasked
to go and rescue a vessel that has hostages onboard.”

He explained that “continuously exercising together would make sure that were an
incident to happen, both navies were “already in sync in terms of tactics, Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs) and communications, we know who to call and what to 
do.”

The French Defence Attaché, Captain (Navy) AL De Lapeyriere, confirmed that this
exercise afforded both nations the ability to test its interoperability as both 
nations face the same maritime issues.

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“South Africa is like France, a nation of the Indian Ocean. (South Africa) is the
most important partner that we have in the southern Indian Ocean,” De Lapeyriere
explained. “We share with South Africa a common area of interest, but also one geographical
area of interest, which is the southern Indian Ocean close to the EEZ of the French
island Crozet and the South African islands of Prince Edward and Marion.”

De Lapeyriere continued: “We also share the fact that we are the only nations in
the area to have a strong Navy with frigates with high level capabilities. Seen 
from France, South Africa is a very important partner (with whom) we want to improve
our relations.”

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