The annual maritime exercise is conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa, the Western Indian Ocean

In a move to strengthen its maritime presence in the Indian Ocean Region and maintain high operational readiness, Indian Naval Ship Talwar is participating in multi-countries Naval Exercise ‘Cutlass Express 2021’ from July 26 to August 6 along the East Coast of Africa.

According to the Ministry of Defence, besides India, the US and the UK, 12 Eastern African nations, various international organizations like International Maritime Organisations (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), Critical Maritime Routes Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) and EUCAP Somalia. Indian Navy is participating in the exercise.

The exercise is an annual maritime exercise conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean.

The exercise focuses on East Africa’s coastal regions and is designed to assess and improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promote national and regional security and increase interoperability between the regional navies.

As part of the exercise, the Indian Navy, together with other partners, will undertake training of contingents from various participating countries in various fields across the spectrum of maritime security operations.

Information sharing and information flow between various partner countries with respect to maritime domain awareness is also a key focus of the exercise and participation of India’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) would contribute in achieving the same.

As part of the exercise, INS Talwar is visiting Mombasa, Kenya, wherein various other professional interactions are also planned with the Kenya Navy.

The ship, during its stay at Mombasa, will also host a number of events to build stronger bridges of friendships with Kenya, Indian community and host of other partners in addition to the Cutlass Express participants.

India’s commitment to the countries along the East Coast of Africa and the Western IOR is further going to be strengthened with the visit of INS Talwar and is in keeping with India's stated policy towards maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region and vision SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).