INS Tushil arrived its first port visit to London as a part of its maiden operational deployment, according to the Indian High Commission in the UK.
The Indian High Commission stated in a post on X,, “@HCI_London welcomes INS Tushil ! London is the first port of call for Indian Navy’s latest multi-role stealth guided missile frigate INS Tushil on her maiden operational deployment.”
The ship was constructed in Russia and officially commissioned on December 9 this year in the presence of Rajnath Singh, the Defence Minister of India.
As per a previous statement from Ministry of Defence, INS Tushil is an advanced Krivak III class frigates of Project 1135.6, with six are already in service – three Talwar class ships, built at Baltisky shipyard, St Petersburg, and three follow-on Teg class ships, built at Yantar shipyard, Kaliningrad.
According to the press release, INS Tushil, the seventh in the series, is the first of the two upgraded additional follow-on vessels. The contract for these ships was signed in Oct 2016 between JSC Rosoboronexport, Indian Navy and the Government of India.
The construction of the ship was closely supervised by a team of indian specialists from the Warship Overseeing Team based in Kaliningrad, under the guidance of the Indian Embassy in Moscow.
According to the press release,The ship, which departed on December 17, will engage in joint patrols and maritime partnership exercises with several navies along its route, including piracy hotspots in the region.
During her port visits, the ship will undertake capability-building activities with host Navies and hold interactions with hign-ranking military and government officials. The port visits will an opportunity to connect with the Indian diaspora spread across the region.
The first port visit to London comes days after India and UK held the second India-UK 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue in New Delhi on December 3.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a press release stating that both sides discussed the entire gamut of the India-UK comprehensive Strategic Partnership and stressed the significance of sustained high-level engagement to strenghen the dynamic partnership between the two nations.
The dialogue offered a chance to exchange thoughts on recent global and regional developments. Both parties reaffirming their shared vision for peace, stability, and prosperity in a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
In Parliament, Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh highlighted that “The India-United Kingdom bilateral partnership was upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in May 2021 with a ten-year Roadmap to guide the progress of the relationship across all sectors including Trade and Investments, Defence and Security, Technology, Science, Innovation and people-to-people relations”. As a result the port visit becomes a imporant step in strenghtening maritime defence relations forward between the two nations.