After three days in Dubai, the warships will reach Kuwait around May 12 before heading for Manama (Bahrain) and Muscat (Oman) and then finally return to Mumbai by May 27-28.

NEW DELHI: India is dispatching a flotilla of warships to the Persian Gulf to add military heft to its ongoing stepped-up diplomatic outreach to countries of the region, while striking a fine balance between Sunni-led Arab states like Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait on one hand and the Shiite Iran on the other.Defence ministry sources on Saturday said guided-missile destroyer INS Delhi, stealth frigates INS Tarkash and INS Trikhand, missile frigate INS Ganga and tanker INS Deepak of the western naval fleet will leave Mumbai for Dubai (UAE) on May 3. After three days in Dubai, the warships will reach Kuwait around May 12 before heading for Manama (Bahrain) and Muscat (Oman) and then finally return to Mumbai by May 27-28. Around the same time, from May 20 to 23, another Indian warship will be at the famous Bandar Abbas port city on southern coast of Iran.That's not all. While defence minister Manohar Parrikar is slated to visit Oman in May, IAF's Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets and IL-78 mid-air refuelling aircraft will also touch down in UAE for an exercise while returning from the Red Flag exercise at the Eielson airbase in Alaska (US) being held from April 28 to May 13.With India's primary area of strategic interest stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait, the country's military establishment is cranking up ties with the Arabstates as well as Iran. "The visits by our warships and aircraft to the Persian Gulf are aimed at enhancing defence relationships and inter-operability with the countries there as well as showing the Indian flag in this region of strategic importance," said an official. This military diplomacy is in tune with the political one to bolster economic and security bonds with a region that has around eight million Indian expatriates, apart from being a big trading partner and major source of energy, but has more than a few regional fault-lines.Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia earlier this month, which followed his last year's trip to UAE, both of which have traditional close ties with Pakistan.Then, in a counter-balancing bid, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited Shia-majority Iran a few days later.Iran is crucial for India to get access to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia through the International North-South Transport Corridor project.The Iranian port of Chabahar, in particular, will help India counter China's assistance in developing the Gwadar port in Pakistan.India and Iran are also poised to revive their long-standing defence ties now after international sanctions against Teheran have been lifted. Apart from holding some joint naval exercises in the past, India had even helped the Iranian Navy to upgrade its Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines in the mid-1990s.