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With the West Asia struggle entering its 5th week and disruptions successful the Strait of Hormuz triggering economical and vigor instability, the Indian Navy connected Thursday (April 2, 2026) flagged disconnected INS Sunayna arsenic the Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) SAGAR, reinforcing its committedness to determination maritime information and cooperation.
The offshore patrol vessel, carrying Indian Navy unit on with representatives from 16 affable overseas countries, was flagged disconnected by Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth successful the beingness of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi astatine Naval Dockyard successful Mumbai.
Highlighting the evolving information landscape, Admiral Tripathi said maritime contention was nary longer constricted to lipid and vigor but was expanding to captious domains specified arsenic uncommon world elements, minerals, sportfishing grounds and data. He noted that the planetary bid was witnessing expanding flux and friction, with the maritime domain emerging arsenic a superior arena of contestation.
He besides flagged rising challenges including illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, deep-sea probe activities encroaching connected sovereign rights, and increasing threats from piracy, equipped robbery and narco-trafficking aided by precocious technologies.
Unity astatine sea. Strength successful partnership
Under #IOS_SAGAR26, unit from 17 nations person trained together, reinforcing interoperability and shared committedness towards unafraid seas.
As INS Sunayna prepares for the oversea phase, this corporate endeavour reflects the tone of… https://t.co/o3Qj4dUcvipic.twitter.com/wFIOR6d30r
Scale of maritime threats
Citing data, the Naval Chief said the Indian Ocean Region recorded astir 3,700 maritime incidents past year, portion narcotics seizures crossed $1 cardinal successful 2025, underscoring the standard of maritime threats.
Describing the IOS SAGAR arsenic a important collaborative initiative, helium said the information of 16 nations reflects a shared committedness to enhancing maritime information successful a analyzable and contested environment.
During the deployment, the IOS SAGAR volition undertake larboard calls astatine Colombo, Phuket, Jakarta, Singapore, Chittagong, Yangon and Male earlier concluding astatine Kochi. The ngo volition absorption connected grooming successful seamanship, navigation, communication, maritime safety, firefighting, harm power and VBSS operations to amended operational readiness and interoperability among participating nations.
