Exercise Samudra Laksamana: INS Mysore Reaches Lumut, Malaysia

INS Mysore arrived at Lumut in Malaysia on 9 September 2026. The ship is on an operational deployment of the Indian Navy. It is there for the fourth edition of Exercise Samudra Laksamana, the bilateral maritime exercise held between the Indian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Navy. Personnel of the Royal Malaysian Navy and officials of the High Commission of India in Malaysia welcomed the ship and her crew.

What the exercise covers

Samudra Laksamana is run in two settings. One part takes place in harbour and the other at sea. The programme includes cross-deck visits, in which sailors of one navy go aboard the other navy’s ship and see how it is run. It also includes operational interactions and sporting engagements. Activities of this kind let the two crews trade professional experience, build interoperability and get to know each other better. Interoperability matters because two navies that use different ships, different equipment and different drills must still be able to work as one force when they sail together.

Where it fits in the relationship

The visit follows a run of recent engagements between the two countries. Among them was the twelfth India-Malaysia Sub Committee Meeting, which was held on 1 July 2026. Taken together, these contacts underline a maritime partnership that has held steady over the years and show that the scope of cooperation between the two navies keeps widening.

The wider framework

The engagement is in line with two larger ideas. The first is the vision of the Government of India known as MAHASAGAR. The second is the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation 2026, under which India is deepening maritime contacts with the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations through the year. For an examination candidate the useful point is that a single port call sits inside both a bilateral track, with Malaysia, and a regional track, with ASEAN. The Ministry of Defence described the visit as another step in taking maritime cooperation forward and in strengthening professional exchanges between the two countries.