INS Tabar's 3-day Greece visit ends ahead of Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi visit to Athens

Indian Navy's frontline frigate INS Tabar (Courtesy: X | @indiannavy)

INS Tabar, Indian Navy's Talwar-class frigate with stealth capabilities, reached Crete in Greece on September 9 after visiting ports in Germany, Russia, Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and France.

A visit to Crete, which INS Tabar left on Wednesday morning, was particularly important in view of New Delhi's growing strategic partnership with Athens. It arrived just a fortnight before Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi's scheduled visit to Greece. While there may be a question about the timing of the 3,600 ton Russian-built frigate's visit (couldn't it have been timed with the Navy chief's), there is no doubt about the symbolism: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Greece a year ago. His counterpart, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited India in February and Admiral Tripathi will be in Athens on September 26.

The air forces of the two countries are already working closely. The IAF, returning from an exercise, ensured that four of its fighters landed in Greece and there is talk of making such an event a regular as opposed to a one-off one. The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) is rather potent, say senior IAF officials: it has the Mirage-2000, the F-16 and the Rafale. This is of particular importance to the IAF-- in case of purchases of spares from Dassault for the Mirage-2000 and the Rafale, a joint request could lead to economies of scale. There will be an advantage when it comes to training and also, the tactical advantage of knowing how the F-16, which Pakistan has, performs vis-a-vis the two French-built planes that India has.

Admiral Tripathi's visit will include meetings with Greek navy chief, Vice Admiral Stylianos Petrakis and the chief of defence staff, General Dimitrios Choupis. He will visit Greek naval bases, but the Hellenic Navy is smaller, with its 13 frigates and 10 submarines.

For the Indian Navy, the Indian Ocean is the main zone of operation, but the outlying areas are important. Hence, Indonesia and Singapore are critical, keeping in mind the Malacca Straits, an entry point to the Indian Ocean. Similarly, Crete is strategically located: there is a base of the US-led NATO there and Greece and also, Egypt are important players keeping in mind the Suez Canal being a major outlet.

There is also the looming threat of Turkey, a country India helped during a massive earthquake it faced. Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO, but they have the odd difference between themselves. More importantly, Turkey has been supplying Pakistan with corvettes and midget submarines as well as other weapon systems. And this worries India.