INS Delhi conducts maritime partnership exercise with Sri Lanka Navy Ship Vijayabahu

According to a spokesman of the Navy here, during the ship’s stay in harbour, several interactions including cross training of personnel in various topics of mutual interest were held between the ship’s crew and personnel from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN).

Visakhapatnam: INS Delhi left Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday, after a two-day visit to the port city which concluded with a Maritime Partnership Exercise at sea off Colombo between INS Delhi and SLN ship Vijayabahu.

According to a spokesman of the Navy here, during the ship’s stay in harbour, several interactions including cross training of personnel in various topics of mutual interest were held between the ship’s crew and personnel from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN). A clean-up drive at Crow Island beach was jointly undertaken by the visiting ship’s crew and personnel from SLN. The ship also conducted a familiarisation tour onboard for over 200 NCC cadets and 500 other local visitors.

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The Commanding Officer of INS Delhi interacted with Rear Admiral Suresh De Silva, Commander Western Naval Area (COMWEST) and paid homage at the IPKF memorial by laying a wreath in honour of the Indian soldiers who laid their lives in Sri Lanka during IPKF operations from 1987-91.

As part of India’s ‘Aarogya Maitri’ initiative to provide essential medical supplies to friendly countries, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, presented a state-of-the-art Arogya Maitri Cube to the Speaker of Sri Lanka Parliament during a reception hosted onboard INS Delhi.

These medical cubes have been indigenously developed under the Project BHISHM (Bharat Health Initiative for Sahyog Hita and Maitri). Besides the Speaker, the reception was attended by several senior government officials including the Minister for Ports, Shipping and Aviation, the Attorney General, Secretary of Defence and all three Service Chiefs, the spokesman said.