The Indian Navy guided-missile frigate INS TRISHUL (F43), the second unit of the TALWAR class, built by Russia’s Baltiysky Zavod shipyard, arrived in the port of Civitavecchia on October 25. The visit is part of the ship’s operational deployment in the Mediterranean.

Before entering port, TRISHUL held a passing exercise (PASSEX) with the Italian Navy’s FREMM CARLO MARGOTTINI. According to the Indian Navy, the exercise included coordinated maneuvers, communication drills, replenishment-at-sea approaches, helicopter cross-deck landings, personnel transfers and boarding operations. During the port call, the ship’s officers met local authorities, and the Indian crew carried out joint activities with Italian Navy personnel.

Before reaching Italy, INS TRISHUL took part in KONKAN-26, a bilateral exercise with the Royal Navy held from October 8 to 15 between Plymouth and the waters south of the United Kingdom, alongside the frigate HMS SUTHERLAND.

The visit comes as naval cooperation between the 2 countries “intensifies”, and it goes beyond the navies. Bilateral relations between Rome and New Delhi were raised to a Special Strategic Partnership in May 2026, when the 2 governments also announced a Defense Industrial Roadmap.

Rome recently hosted the first India-Italy Bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue. Representatives of the Italian Navy, the Coast Guard and the Defense and Foreign Ministries of both countries attended. The talks focused on maritime domain awareness, countering illicit activity at sea and protecting critical maritime infrastructure.

In the same days, the Italian multipurpose offshore patrol ship (PPA) GIOVANNI DELLE BANDE NERE, in its Full Combat configuration, called at Mumbai. It then carried out its own PASSEX in the Indian Ocean with the destroyer SURAT (VISAKHAPATNAM class/Project 15B). Meanwhile, the Italian Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, traveled to India to meet his Indian counterpart, Admiral Krishna Swaminathan.

Commercial sea lanes and critical maritime infrastructure face growing threats in an increasingly contested and congested environment. Closer cooperation between partners with shared strategic interests is therefore especially timely, all the more so with India, which is growing fast in the security and defense sector.

For more on how the Indian Navy is evolving and on New Delhi’s drive for defense self-sufficiency, as FWMag saw firsthand during its Familiarization Visit to India, read the analysis “India: is the giant on the road to self-reliance?” published on FWMag, Issue 3.

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