The Indian and Turkish navies are to hold a two-day exercise off the coast of Mumbai from Sunday.
Four Turkish vessels are to arrive at Mumbai on Thursday on a port call after leaving Karachi earlier this week.
The frigates, TCG (Turkish Republic Ship) Barbaros (which incidentally runs on the same engines as the INS Shivalik), TCG Gelibolu and TCG Gemlik (both Gabya-class frigates), supported by the fleet tanker TCG YBK Gungor will be taking part in the exercise, after having completed a deployment in the Indian Ocean.
The commander of the Turkish Naval Task Group is Rear Admiral A Sinan Ertugrul.
They will be drilling with the INS Mumbai (Delhi-class guided missile destroyer), INS Betwa, INS Brahmaputra (both Beas-class frigates) and a Shishukumar-class SSK submarine (HDW) along with some Indian Navy Dornier aircraft.
The exercise will include anti-submarine warfare, coordinated strike and interdiction drills, besides other maneuvers in seas that are expected to be fairly rough.
The Turkish Navy has been part of the anti-piracy CTF (Combined Task Force)-151 and has led the mission a number of times.
The Indian Navy chief, Admiral Nirmal Verma was in Turkey last month (June 13-16), while the Indian Air Force chief, Air Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik visited the country last April (April 18-21).
The Commander of Turkish Naval Forces, Admiral Esref Yugur Yigit visited India last December (December 14-19).
Turkey has a fairly respectable naval ship-building industry and mutual cooperation in this area is being seen as a possibility.
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