Bilateral military exercises are as much about diplomacy as defence preparedness. Discuss with reference to India's exercises with its maritime neighbours.

The 12th edition of SLINEX concluded at Colombo on 18 August 2025 with just two ships a side over five days [1][2] — a modest military event, yet a significant diplomatic one. India's exercises with its maritime neighbours deliver interoperability and signalling in roughly equal measure.

The defence preparedness dimension

• Common operating procedures: SLINEX-25's sea phase covered gunnery, VBSS (Visit, Board, Search and Seizure), navigation and communication drills, with Special Forces of both navies participating [1].
• HADR readiness: harbour phases build disaster-relief, firefighting and damage-control skills [1] — the capability actually used in Indian Ocean emergencies.
• Limits are real: Sri Lanka fielded Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels (SLNS Gajabahu, Vijayabahu) against India's INS Rana and INS Jyoti [1]. Such drills raise the floor of cooperation; they do not add combat power against submarine or survey activity.

The diplomacy dimension

• Access and presence: the alternating host pattern places Indian warships in Trincomalee (2020) and Colombo (2025), and Sri Lankan warships at Visakhapatnam under Eastern Naval Command (2024) [3][4][2] — routine port access is itself the strategic product.
• Continuity through political flux: an unbroken annual series from SLINEX-20 to SLINEX-26 [3][5] has survived Sri Lanka's economic crisis and changes of government, keeping India the partner called first.
• Layered architecture: bilateral drills nest within the Colombo Security Conclave and the multilateral MILAN, operationalising SAGAR and Neighbourhood First [5].

Where diplomacy must catch up

• Exercises do not resolve live friction: detention of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy remains a recurring parliamentary question [6], though both navies already practise boarding drills.

Bilateral exercises are therefore trust infrastructure as much as tactical training — insurance that a working channel exists when crises strike. Extending the sea phase to a joint fishing-boat boarding and handover procedure would convert goodwill into problem-solving, advancing SAGAR's promise of security and growth for the region.