The maiden BIMSTEC maritime exercise ended on Tuesday after two days at sea off Sri Vijaya Puram, closing the first joint maritime security exercise held by the seven-nation Bay of Bengal grouping. The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), India's only operational tri-service command, hosted it from 30 October.

Warships from India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were among those that took part.

All seven members of the grouping were represented: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Bhutan and Nepal are landlocked and sent delegates, as both depend heavily on the Bay of Bengal for their export and import trade.

Maiden BIMSTEC maritime exercise moved from harbour to sea

The exercise opened with a harbour phase at Sri Vijaya Puram, with senior-level meetings, professional interactions and cultural exchanges. Vice Admiral Vineet McCarty, Commander-in-Chief of the ANC, had inaugurated it on 30 October.

The ships then put out to sea on 2 and 3 November for coordinated deployments and joint operational activities.

The training plan for the maiden BIMSTEC maritime exercise covered maritime domain awareness, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), action against cross-border maritime crime, and response to oil and hazardous material spills.

INS Taragiri, INS Karmuk and INS Saryu sailed for India

INS Taragiri is one of the Navy's newest warships, a Project 17A stealth frigate built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders and commissioned at Visakhapatnam in April. INS Karmuk is a Kora class missile corvette and INS Saryu an offshore patrol vessel.

Sri Lanka sent SLNS Gajabahu, which reached Sri Vijaya Puram on 29 October and received a ceremonial welcome from the Indian Navy. Myanmar sent UMS King Aung Zeya. The Myanmar deployment came in a busy week for ties between the two militaries, with India and Myanmar also beginning Exercise Rahat Mitra, their first tri-services disaster relief exercise, in Chennai on Thursday.

The Indian Navy and the Sri Lanka Navy had worked together at Visakhapatnam in September during SLINEX-26.

BIMSTEC Secretary General and senior regional officers attended

BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey was among the senior dignitaries at the exercise, along with Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (Retd), India's National Maritime Security Coordinator.

From the region came Rear Admiral Kyaw Kyaw Htoo, Commander of the Myanmar Navy's Central Naval Command, and Air Vice Marshal MDR Prasad (Retd), Director (Monitoring and Evaluation) in Sri Lanka's Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation. Captain Mohammad Monzurul Islam, Commanding Officer of BNS Prottoy, represented Bangladesh.

Exercise followed Delhi Declaration and expert group talks

The exercise was held in the spirit of the Delhi Declaration, adopted at the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' meeting in New Delhi on 13 October, and of the fourth BIMSTEC Expert Group meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation in November 2025.

In July, the BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs met in New Delhi for their fifth meeting and took up guidelines on maritime HADR and on conduct between maritime law enforcement agencies at sea.

Prime Minister announced the exercise at the 2025 Bangkok summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the exercise at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand in April 2025.

In April this year, Secretary General Pandey said the member states had agreed to hold a maritime security exercise involving their navies and coast guards for the first time, with India convening it. BIMSTEC, set up in 1997, links five South Asian members with Myanmar and Thailand in South-East Asia.