Navy ships cancel Japanese port call

Visakhapatnam-based eastern fleet’s five ships, which are on a two-month deployment to eight nations, have cancelled their Okinawa port call considering the nuclear radiation crisis in Japan.

The call was to be made as part of a tri-nation exercise with the US and Japanese navies. The ships, which left India on March 13, were to initially visit Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Russia, Singapore and Japan, but will now skip the last country.

INS Delhi, INS Jyoti, INS Ranvijay and two R-class destroyers may, however, participate in IMDEX (International Maritime Defence Exhibition) Asia-2011 in the third week of May in Singapore.