MILAN 2026 Drills Kick Off in India
The Indian Navy described the biennial exercise as among the most significant multilateral drills in the region. MILAN 2026 is structured in two phases — a harbor phase that kicked off Thursday, followed by a sea phase commencing Friday.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh framed the occasion as a defining moment for New Delhi's global standing, writing on X that "this grand maritime convergence reaffirms India's role as a reliable and trusted partner contributing positively to regional and global maritime security."
Running alongside the core naval drills are the International Fleet Review (IFR) and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) Conclave of Chiefs, both conducted under the broader MILAN umbrella. A two-day international maritime seminar and the inauguration of the MILAN Village have also formed part of the proceedings.
Organizers have positioned MILAN as a strategic forum for building interoperability among partner navies and confronting an evolving set of maritime threats — ranging from safeguarding critical Sea Lines of Communication to combating piracy and coordinating disaster response.
Russia figures prominently among the key participants. The Marshal Shaposhnikov, an Udaloy-class destroyer from the Vladivostok-based Pacific Fleet, docked at Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. The Indian Navy said the vessel's arrival "reflects the ongoing cooperation and long-standing maritime ties between the navies of India and Russia."
The diplomatic dimension of Russia's participation was underscored Thursday at the IFR, where Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi met with Admiral Aleksandr Alekseevich Moiseev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy. The Indian Navy described the exchange as reflecting "the longstanding character of India-Russia naval cooperation, highlighting sustained operational interactions, interoperability, and professional exchanges."
The exercises arrive against a backdrop of intensifying rhetoric from Moscow. A senior Russian official declared this week that BRICS nations must forge deeper strategic maritime cooperation to protect global shipping lanes from what he characterized as Western piracy.
The scale of MILAN 2026 aligns with India's broader naval ambitions. New Delhi has set an aggressive expansion target of more than 200 warships and submarines by 2035, with projections potentially reaching 230 vessels by 2037 — a build-up that signals India's intent to cement its position as a dominant maritime power across the Indo-Pacific.
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