Indian naval ships Mumbai, Talwar, Teg and Deepak under the Command of Rear Admiral R. Hari Kumar, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, are on a two-month long Overseas Deployment to East Africa and the South Indian Ocean region. Three of the four ships, INS Mumbai, INS Talwar and INS Deepak arrived Saint Denis Port of the Reunion island, France, on October 27, towards bolstering bilateral ties and reinforcing cooperation in maritime security between India and France.

India and France have traditionally maintained close and friendly relations with bilateral cooperation being extended to various fields. The establishment of the Strategic Partnership in 1998 witnessed further rise in bilateral ties with regular high level exchanges at the Head of State and government levels, thus boosting the cooperation in trade and investment, culture, science and technology, education, nuclear energy, space and defence to name a few. The scale and quantum of defence cooperation between the countries has progressively been stepped up in the last decade.

During the stay the ships would be kept open to public. In addition, various cultural events and games between the two navies are also scheduled.