In continuation of the Indian Navy’s endeavour to build, ‘Bridges of Friendship’ five sailing vessels of the Indian Navy are visiting Sri Lanka from 10-19 March 2022.
The indigenous sailing vessels include Mhadei, Tarini, Bulbul, Kadalpura and Hariyal. The visit aims to provide ocean sailing training and experience to the Sri Lanka Navy. The vessels were in Trincomalee from 10 March 2022 to 13 March 2022 and embarked fourteen officers including two lady officers of Sri Lanka Navy for ocean sailing experience in Colombo. Dedicated training was also imparted to the embarking officers by an Indian Navy Officer during harbour phase.
The Senior Officer of the Indian Navy Sailing team, Cmde BR Singh, called on RAdm Jayantha Kularatne, COMEAST at Trincomalee and RAdm AUC De Silva, Deputy Chief of Staff & COMWEST at Colombo. The ocean sailing experience provided by Indian Navy is expected to encourage keen enthusiasm amongst the Sri Lanka Navy Officers for this adventure sport.
It may be recalled that INSV Madhei circumnavigated the globe in a solo endeavour by Cdr Dilip Donde in 2010 and undertook nonstop solo expedition in 2012 by Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy. Further, INSV Tarini as part of Navika Sagar Parikrama (Six Women Officer team) had successfully circumnavigated the globe in 2019. To further support the interest towards sailing and adventure sports amongst the personnel of the Sri Lanka Navy, RAdm Sameer Saxena, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, Indian Navy had earlier handed over state of the art sailing gears on behalf of the Indian Navy to RAdm PS Mahawithana, Director General Operation of the Sri Lanka Navy at a ceremony onboard INS Chennai on 12 March 2022.
The recent engagements amongst the two Navies have cemented the deep rooted bonds of friendship and seamless interoperability. The arrival of Indian Navy ships is symbolic of close defence cooperation and togetherness shared amongst the two countries in line with India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ policy.
