The Indian Navy’s sail training ship INS Sudarshini set sail from Lisbon on Tuesday, bringing to a close a three-day port call that formed part of her ongoing Lokayan 26 transoceanic training expedition.
During her stay in the Portuguese capital, the ship’s Commanding Officer held meetings with two senior officers of the Portuguese Navy: Rear Admiral Miguel Bessa Pacheco, Commandant of the Portuguese Naval Academy, and Rear Admiral Joao Paulo Silva Pereira, Deputy Fleet Commander of the Portuguese Navy. Officials described the meetings as a reaffirmation of the institutional ties and mutual understanding shared by the two naval forces.
The port call also included an academic and cultural exchange. Sea trainees aboard INS Sudarshini visited the Portuguese Naval Academy, known as the Escola Naval, where they met their Portuguese counterparts, toured the academy’s historic campus and training facilities, and traded notes on seamanship and the traditions of tall-ship sail training.
Rounding out the visit was a deck reception held onboard the ship, attended by senior Portuguese military officials, members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of the Indian diaspora in Portugal.
INS Sudarshini’s stops in Lisbon and, earlier, in Ponta Delgada in the Azores form part of a broader itinerary highlighting the growing maritime cooperation between India and Portugal. Naval officials say the Lokayan 26 expedition continues to serve as a platform for strengthening defence and cultural ties between the two nations as the ship proceeds on the next leg of her voyage.
