Indian Naval Ship Sunayna, deployed as the Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) Sagar with a multinational crew, arrived at the Port of Colombo on Friday, May 15 and was accorded a traditional naval welcome by the Sri Lanka Navy, marking the seventh port call of the deployment’s second edition.
Commanded by Commander Siddharth Chaudhary, the vessel was flagged off from the Port of Mumbai on April 2 following combined harbour training at Indian naval establishments. The multinational contingent of 17 nations comprises officers and sailors from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Singapore, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste and the United Arab Emirates, alongside Indian Navy personnel.
The training programme covered seamanship, navigation, communications, safety of life at sea, firefighting and damage control, alongside specialised modules on Visit, Board, Search and Seizure operations and advanced bridgemanship.
During the Colombo stay, the Commanding Officer is expected to call on the Commander of the Western Naval Area and the Flag Officer Commanding Naval Fleet. The visiting crew will engage in professional and sporting interactions with Sri Lanka Navy personnel and visit places of interest.
The deployment falls under India’s MAHASAGAR vision — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions — and operates under the framing “One Ocean, One Mission.” The initiative is part of New Delhi’s broader effort to deepen multilateral maritime engagement across the Indian Ocean as great-power contestation in the region intensifies.
The visit comes shortly after Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong characterised the Indian Ocean as a potential power battleground in remarks last week, and as Sri Lanka’s navy completes its own multilateral CBRN exercise at Trincomalee.
