Article Posted on : - Oct 07, 2009

The joint naval exercise off the Sri Lankan coast. Image credit: Sri Lanka Navy

COLOMBO (BNS): Indian Navy and Coast Guard ships have joined the Sri Lankan Navy ships in a three-day long joint naval exercise in the Western waters of the island nation commencing Tuesday.

Indian Navy’s INS Shardul and Coast Guard’s ICGS Varuna joined Sri Lanka’s SLNS Sayura and SLNS Samudura in carrying out the exercise codenamed ‘Cadex 2009’. The joint drill will continue till Thursday.

Over a hundred officer cadets of the Sri Lanka Navy’s Naval and Maritime Academy joined the exercise which aims to provide the naval cadets an opportunity to train onboard Indian ships and for Sri Lanka Navy ships to enhance and exchange knowledge with their Indian counterparts, the Sri Lankan Navy said in a statement.

A part of the training exercise programme was the landing of a ‘cheetak’ light helicopter from INS Shardul on SLN Sayura.

The Indian Navy and Coast Guard are in Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe. The exercise programme aims to affirm bilateral ties between the two neighbouring nations.