Indian Naval Ship INS Udaygiri arrived at the Port of Colombo on Tuesday for an official visit, and was received by the Sri Lanka Navy in keeping with time-honoured naval tradition.
The 149.02-metre frigate is commanded by Captain Vikas Sood, who is scheduled to call on Commander Western Naval Area Rear Admiral Harsha De Silva at the Western Naval Command Headquarters, the Daily Mirror reported.
Captain Sood is returning to familiar ground: he served as Defence Adviser at the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka from July 2020 to October 2023.
During the ship’s stay, its crew will take part in goodwill events organised by the Sri Lanka Navy and visit prominent tourist and cultural sites across the island. Sri Lanka Navy personnel are also expected to go aboard for capability observation and knowledge sharing, with onboard training to be conducted during the call, according to NewsFirst.
Arrival coincides with Rajnath Singh’s visit
Neither newsroom links the port call to a wider programme, but the timing is notable: Udaygiri docked on the same day Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh landed in Colombo for the first visit by an Indian Defence Minister in 38 years, a three-day programme running to September 10 during which three security memorandums of understanding are due to be signed.
No source has described the ship’s visit as part of that programme, and the Sri Lanka Navy has presented it as a routine call.
One detail in the visit’s advance programme bears on the question without settling it. The Sunday Times, previewing Singh’s itinerary two days before he landed, reported that a reception would be held on board an Indian Navy ship on Wednesday evening with a select number of invitees. It does not name the vessel, and no report connects that reception to Udaygiri. The frigate is, so far as has been reported, the Indian Navy ship in Colombo this week.
A steady run of Indian port calls
The visit continues a high tempo of Indian naval activity at Sri Lankan ports through 2026. Colombo has this year received the diving support vessel INS Nireekshak in April, INS Airavat and Indian and Pakistani vessels simultaneously on June 1, and the offshore patrol vessel INS Sharda for an operational turnaround in June.
Such calls provide replenishment and crew rest while reinforcing the bilateral maritime framework under New Delhi’s SAGAR — Security and Growth for All in the Region — doctrine.
