The Indian warship INS Tamal, which appeared in the Gulf of Bothnia last week has departed the Åland Sea, heading south on Sunday afternoon.
The Finnish Navy and the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District kept a close eye on the 125-metre-long, 3,900-tonne frigate, which first appeared in the Gulf of Finland on Friday before it headed left the area.
INS Tamal reached as far as the Bothnian Bay before turning back south over the weekend.
"As of Monday morning, the warship was in international waters in the Baltic Sea, roughly north of Sweden's Gotland island," the Finnish Navy's Public Affairs Officer Markus Malila said.
According to a report by naval technology website Naval News, the Indian Navy commissioned the multi-purpose frigate from the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad, Russia.
No suspicion of illegal activity
The Finnish Navy has been monitoring the vessel's movements with the cooperation of Baltic Sea allies, just as they do with other ships operating in the region, when necessary.
According to Malila, with the current information at hand, the reasons for INS Tamal's weekend route would only be speculative. However, the vessel is not suspected of illegal activity.
Vessels have the right to move freely in international waters. However, the Kvarken area is so narrow that to pass through it, vessels are forced to pass through either Finnish or Swedish territorial waters.
In this case, the stops made by the vessel in Finnish territorial waters were deemed permissible as "innocent passage" — a maritime principle that allows a vessel to pass through the territorial sea of another state, provided it does not threaten its peace or security.
Yle contacted the Indian Embassy in Helsinki multiple times for comment, but Ambassador Hemant H. Kotalwar was unavailable for an interview.
"Heavily armed for its size"
According to a report by Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey's state-run news agency, Russian shipbuilders handed over the Tamal warship to the Indian Navy in early July.
It was reported at the time that the Tamal was heading to its home port in southern India, with visits to several ports planned to demonstrate its capabilities.
According to naval technology website Naval News, the frigate is "heavily armed for its size". Its armament includes supersonic cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, an upgraded main gun with a low radar signature, close-in weapon systems, anti-submarine rocket launchers, torpedo tubes, and decoy launchers.
The INS Tamal is the "last warship to be inducted from a foreign source," according to an Indian government statement quoted by AA. Russia has delivered 51 ships to India over six decades.
