Malabar war games: India, US, Japan to deploy their largest warships, focus on anti-submarine warfare

INS Vikramaditya, USS Nimitz aircraft carrier Japan’s largest helicopter carrier JS Izum will take part in Malabar exercise.
New Delhi: Amid the increasing border tensions between New Delhi and Beijing, India, the US and Japan are all set to showcase their naval power in the Malabar war games in the Indian Ocean from July 10.
In consonance with New Delhi’s ‘Act East Policy’ and growing relations among India, US and Japan, all the three countries will be deploying their largest warships for the high-profile war games.
Besides INS Vikramaditya, USS Nimitz aircraft carrier Japan’s largest helicopter carrier JS Izumo, many other warships, submarines would take part in aimed at addressing shared threats to maritime security in the Indo-Asia Pacific region.
The exercise involving naval ships, aircraft and personnel from the three countries will feature in both ashore and at-sea training off India’s eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
Amid increasing Chinese forays in the Indian Ocean, the joint mid-summer exercise will focus on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW).
The exercise comes at a time during an ongoing military standoff in the Sikkim section.
China on Tuesday ruled out any compromise with India and put the onus on New Delhi to resolve the situation to what it described as ‘grave’.
China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area near the Bhutan trijunction for past 19 days after a Chinese Army’s construction party came to build a road.
Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.
China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the area. Bhutan, however, has no diplomatic ties with China and it is supported militarily and diplomatically by India.