SLINEX-26: India-Sri Lanka Maritime Exercise Ends in Visakhapatnam

The 13th edition of SLINEX, the bilateral maritime exercise that the Indian Navy holds with the Sri Lanka Navy, was wrapped up at Visakhapatnam on 21 September 2026. The Ministry of Defence announced the closing on 23 September 2026. The two fleets had begun working together on 17 September, so the drill ran five days on the eastern seaboard, at the port that hosts the Eastern Naval Command.

How the exercise was built

Like most bilateral naval drills, SLINEX-26 was split into two stages. The harbour phase kept the ships alongside: officers and sailors of the two navies sat through subject discussions, went aboard each other's warships on cross-deck visits, and played sporting fixtures together. The point of this stage is familiarity, because crews that have met ashore work faster together at sea.

What the sea phase covered

• Manoeuvres in which the ships of both navies moved as one formation.
• Air operations flown alongside the surface units.
• Replenishment at sea carried out at night, one of the harder seamanship tasks a warship performs.
• Special Forces work, including slithering on to a deck from a helicopter.
• Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) drills, the boarding routine used against piracy, smuggling and suspicious merchant traffic.

Why the drill matters

The Ministry places SLINEX inside two larger frames. The first is MAHASAGAR, India's vision for the maritime neighbourhood; the second is the Neighbourhood First policy, under which India builds capacity in partner navies rather than only training with them. Both point at the same aim, a safe and steady Indian Ocean Region, through which a very large share of India's trade and energy moves.

Points a student should hold on to

SLINEX is an India-Sri Lanka exercise, not a multilateral one, and it alternates between Indian and Sri Lankan ports. The word to attach to it in an answer is interoperability, the ability of two separate forces to operate as a single unit. Visakhapatnam, on the Bay of Bengal coast of Andhra Pradesh, is the harbour to remember for this edition.