India, US and Japan prepare for large-scale naval exercise

India, the US and Japan are preparing for a large-scale naval exercise called Malabar in the Bay of Bengal, which will begin on July 10.

India will hold military exercises with the US and Japan.

The purpose of this operation is to fight piracy and terrorism. But of course, this is just a "screen"...

The US-Indian exercises have been held annually since 2002, - Andrei Karneev, Deputy Director of the Asia-Africa Institute of Lomonosov Moscow State University, wrote in a commentary for Sputnik.

The exercise has occasionally involved Singapore and Australia. Since 2015, it has regularly involved Japan.

It is not difficult to guess that this has intensified the anti-China bias of the exercise, given the territorial issues that exist between New Delhi and Tokyo with Beijing, as well as Washington's efforts to actively intervene in the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.

This year, the ten-day exercise will involve about 15 warships, including the Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz and the Japanese helicopter carrier Izumo, as well as submarines and will involve the air force. Using such a large force for the fight against piracy is clearly excessive…

Amid deteriorating bilateral relations, Beijing is closely monitoring New Delhi's military cooperation with China's military-political rivals in the Asia-Pacific region.

There continues to be a strategic mistrust between Beijing and New Delhi. With China’s ambitions to become a strong ocean power, Beijing cannot completely accept the growing influence of the Indian Navy in the Asia-Pacific region.

It is further said that today, India's naval potential is comparable to China's, and in some aspects even surpasses that of the Chinese Navy.

If the Malabar exercise is followed by a long-term strategic cooperation in the India-US-Japan format, this will mean a significant weakening of China's position in the region.

According to Sputnik