UK ships in Chennai mark increasing defence ties between UK and India

UK ships RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay visit Chennai, strengthening UK-India defense partnership and Indo-Pacific cooperation.

It has been a few weeks since two ships, RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay of the UK’s Littoral Response Group - South (LRG-S), arrived in Chennai last month, on their first engagement of its deployment to the Indian Pacific region. The ships are undergoing maintenance in the Larsen and Toubro shipyard at Kattupalli, near Chennai.

It was only in March 2023 that the UK’s HMS Tamar made a port call in Chennai. The regular visits of UK ships are increasing the prominence of Chennai in the ‘Roadmap 2030 for India-UK future relations’, that was launched in 2021.

As the 2030 vision aims for an “enhanced defence and security cooperation that brings a more secure Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific”, the south Indian city on the eastern coast is only among the natural choices for port call.

Oliver Ballhatchet MBE, British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai said that the visit of the UK’s Littoral Response Group to India, including undergoing scheduled maintenance in an Indian shipyard, added more depth to the UK-India defence partnership. “This is another significant success of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement signed between the two countries in October 2022”, he said.

The recent activity with India, complemented the UK and Royal Navy’s increased presence in the region to tackle shared security threats and work more closely with India and the Indian Navy to “maintain a rules-based international order in support of a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific,” Mr. Ballhatchet said.

Speaking to reporters onboard the RFA Argus, Commander G. Dalgleish, Commander Amphibious Task Force, LRG-S referred to the Roadmap 2030 and said: “We want to continue to strengthen defence ties.”

“From a military perspective, India was a perfect opportunity and a great place to carry out maintenance, as it has all the facilities,” he said. This visit would also be a “precursor” for the UK’s Carrier Strike Group planned visit to Japan in 2025, as part of Indo-Pacific deployment.