Indian Navy holds ‘Zayed Talwar’ exercise with UAE off Dubai

The two Indian Naval Ships – INS Visakhapatnam and INS Trikand – participated in bilateral naval maritime partnership exercise ‘Zayed Talwar’ with the UAE Navy off the coast of Dubai on Saturday.

As reported by IndiaNarrative.com earlier in the week, the Indian Navy’s frontline platforms arrived at Port Rashid on August 8 to undertake professional interactions with UAE Naval Force on various elements of maritime operations and share best practices aimed at enhancing cooperation and strengthening ties between the two navies.

After two days of detailed planning, the two navies conducted the bilateral maritime partnership exercise on Saturday which is aimed at enhancing the interoperability and synergy between the two navies by cross training on tactics, techniques and procedures while developing stronger professional bonds.

Rear Admiral Vineet McCarty, Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, met Brigadier Abdullah Farj Al Mehairbi, the Deputy Commander of UAE Naval Forces at Abu Dhabi Naval Command. Both officers agreed on increasing the interaction between the two Navies in order to jointly tackle the common challenges of piracy, smuggling, human trafficking, enhance maritime security and undertake joint Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief operations, should the need arise.

The Admiral also called on Sunjay Sudhir, the Ambassador of India to the UAE and updated him on the scope and conduct of the exercise and the road map of Navy-to-Navy cooperation between India and UAE.

The Ambassador highlighted that the presence of these two ships for the naval exercise is an indication of India’s growing defence relations with UAE guided by the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the countries.

INS Visakhapatnam, commanded by Captain Ashok Rao, is one of the largest operational Destroyer in Indian Navy and is a completely indigenous warship made by the Mazagaon Docks Limited. NS Trikand, commanded by Captain Pramod G Thomas, is an advance stealth frigate commissioned in 2013. The ship is a contemporary warship with state of the art technology incorporated in every facet of its design to make her stable, stealthier, fast and formidable.

Indian Navy’s Western Fleet ships have been visiting United Arab Emirates regularly while on a long-range deployment to the Persian Gulf to enhance bilateral ties with friendly regional navies.

India and the UAE, along with France, are involved in a trilateral institutional exchange since September 2022 – the India-France-UAE Trilateral Dialogue – that focuses on extending cooperation in the fields of defence, energy and environment, innovation and people-to-people exchanges, by synergising the strong bilateral partnerships between the three countries.

Egypt, UAE and Oman are the three League of Arab States (LAS) which have been invited as guest countries by India as it hosts the much-awaited G20 Summit under its ongoing presidency in September.

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