Indian Navy Ship Heads to Jakarta After Drills
- Indian Ocean Ship INS Sunayna left Phuket after joint naval drills with the Royal Thai Navy. - The vessel will continue its SAGAR mission docking in Jakarta as part of maritime cooperation. - Officials highlight stronger regional ties and security collaboration through such port visits (indiablooms.com).
India’s naval ship INS Sunayna has left Phuket and is sailing to Jakarta after joint engagements with Thailand’s navy on April 17. (publicnow.com) India’s defence ministry said the ship completed a three-day operational turnaround in Phuket, its second port call in the 2026 Indian Ocean Ship SAGAR deployment. Phuket followed the vessel’s April 14 arrival from Malé, Maldives, after a six-day transit. (publicnow.com; globalsecurity.org) During the Thailand stop, INS Sunayna’s commanding officer, Commander Siddharth Chaudhary, met Rear Admiral Sathaporn Wajarat of the Royal Thai Navy’s Third Naval Area Command. The two navies also held a Passage Exercise with HTMS Klongyai that included communication drills and formation maneuvers. (publicnow.com) A Passage Exercise, or PASSEX, is a short drill between ships at sea to test how well crews can move, signal and operate together. India said the Phuket drill showed “plug-and-play” coordination between the Indian and Thai navies. (publicnow.com) The Jakarta stop is part of a wider mission India launched from Mumbai on April 2 under the name Indian Ocean Ship SAGAR. The defence ministry said INS Sunayna sailed with Indian personnel and members of 16 friendly foreign maritime forces. (pib.gov.in) Indian officials have tied the voyage to MAHASAGAR, short for Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. Naval Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said the mission is meant to answer a maritime environment shaped by piracy, illegal fishing, narcotics trafficking and competition over critical resources. (pib.gov.in) The deployment’s sea phase runs from April 2 to May 20, according to the Press Information Bureau. India said the itinerary includes Jakarta, Singapore, Chittagong, Yangon, Colombo, Malé and a final return to Kochi. (pib.gov.in) For now, the ship’s move from Phuket to Jakarta shows how India is using port calls, drills and mixed crews to build naval ties across the eastern Indian Ocean. The next test of that approach comes when INS Sunayna docks in Indonesia. (publicnow.com; pib.gov.in)
