First time in a decade, UK Navy vessel in Port Blair

NEW DELHI: For the first time in a decade, an offshore patrol vessel of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, HMS Tamar, has entered Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as part of its permanent deployment in the Indo-Pacific region.

The ship and her crew will undertake capability demonstrations and maritime exercises with the Indian Navy, the British High Commission said in a statement. As per Defence officials, this is the first time since 2011 that a Royal Navy ship has entered Andaman and Nicobar Islands which sits on the gateway to the Indo-Pacific region.

Naval ships of other countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand are among those which have visited the islands since 2011, though such visits have not been “very frequent”, the officials said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who was on a two-day visit to the strategic military command at the islands recently, visited Indira Point, the southernmost tip of India, at the Great Nicobar Island — which is separated from Indonesia by the 163- km wide Six Degree channel.

Royal Navy ships have, however, visited other ports in the mainland and have in the past taken part in various maritime exercises with the Indian Navy, a recent one being the maiden India-UK Joint Tri-Service exercise Konkan Shakti between October 21 and 27, 2021, in the Arabian Sea.

Officials said any foreign ship visiting an Indian port first puts in a request, which after clearances from the Navy and the Ministry of External Affairs, is communicated to the country.

Naval ships of other countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand are among those which have visited the islands since 2011, though such visits have not been very frequent

HMS Tamar, along with HMS Spey, are the two Royal Navy vessels on permanent deployment in the Indo-Pacific as set out in the UK’s Integrated Review, the British High Commission statement mentioned.

“The ship’s visit to India is an opportunity to further strengthen the shared maritime domain awareness effort, and underlines the UK’s and India’s intent to collaborate in the Indian Ocean Region and wider IndoPacific,” it added.

The UK has also signed a White Shipping Agreement with India which enables information sharing across the whole of the Indian Ocean Region. In June 2021, the UK posted its first permanent liaison officer at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram to enhance maritime domain awareness in the region, the statement mentioned.