Indian destroyer arrives for joint sail in West Philippine Sea

Manila, Philippines – India’s guided missile destroyer, INS Delhi, arrived in Manila’s harbor on Wednesday morning ahead of what the ship’s commander described as a “first” joint sail with the Philippine Navy in the West Philippine Sea.

Manila was the destroyer’s first port of call before it journeys northward across the disputed waterways together with two other Indian naval assets – an anti-submarine warfare corvette and a fleet support tanker.

The 163-meter warship is armed with Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles jointly developed by India and Russia with an extended range of up to 800 kilometers. The Brahmos missiles, according to the navy, are the same weapons that the Philippines bought from India in January 2022 that marked New Delhi’s first major defense export contract with Manila.

“This [maritime cooperation activity in the West Philippine Sea] is being done for the very first time. We are extremely looking forward to this opportunity,” Rear Admiral Susheel Menon, the Indian Eastern Fleet commander, said during his arrival speech.

“Our two nations share common values and interests particularly in the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific,” he added.

The joint sail is in line with a bilateral memorandum of understanding on maritime cooperation.

Manila-New Delhi defense ties were viewed as a late bloomer and have been gaining momentum since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Manila in 2017 as India increasingly showed willingness to support a rules-based maritime order in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims largely as its own.

As tension with Beijing grows, Manila has been casting a wider net to cover more foreign allies apart from Washington, its longtime ally.

Last February, the country’s armed forces chief had said the Philippines looks to buy more Brahmos missiles from India and at least two submarines as it modernizes its arsenal.

Indian and Philippine navies have “witnessed transition over the years,” the warship commander said.

“This visit provides us the opportunity to reinforce our best practices and procedures which will enable our navies to achieve better understanding and interoperability in the future,” Menon said.