INS Tushil makes 1st port call to London, hosts diaspora, local community

After INS Tushil made its first port call to London as a part of its maiden operational deployment on December 21, the Indian Navy said that during the port call, Naval Regional Commander Commodore R Bellfield met with Captain Peter Varghese, Commanding Officer of INS Tushil, to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Sharing a post on X, the Spokesperson for the Indian Navy wrote, "During the port call at #London, @CdreRBellfield, Naval Regional Commander (NRC LEE) paid a visit onboard #INSTushil & interacted with Capt Peter Varghese, Commanding Officer on issues of mutual interest."

The ship also hosted members of the Indian diaspora and local community, with India's Deputy High Commissioner to the UK Sujit Ghosh and Commodore Sanjay Pote among the visitors.

"The ship was also kept open to visitors & hosted the Indian diaspora & local community in large numbers. The Deputy High Commissioner of India @sujitjoyghosh, and Cmde Sanjay Pote, NA, London also visited the ship," the post added.

INS Tushil was commissioned on December 9 in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The latest multi-role stealth-guided missile frigate of the Indian Navy, INS Tushil is an upgraded Krivak III class frigate of the Project 1135.6, of which six are already in service - three Talwar class ships, built at Baltisky shipyard, St Petersburg, and three follow-on Teg class ships, built at Yantar shipyard, Kaliningrad, according to Ministry of Defence press release.

INS Tushil, the seventh in the series, is the first of the two upgraded additional follow-on ships, the contract for which was signed in Oct 2016 between JSC Rosoboronexport, the Indian Navy and the Government of India.

The ship's construction was closely monitored by an Indian team of specialists from the Warship Overseeing Team stationed at Kaliningrad, under the aegis of the Indian Embassy in Moscow.

The first call to London comes days after India and UK held the second India-UK 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue in New Delhi on December 3.