https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...ames-tqptbrp2z
India teams up with US for anti-China war games
Indian and American warships will hold joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean in the coming days in a show of unity prompted by mounting Chinese aggression throughout the region.
An American carrier group led by the USS
Nimitz, the largest vessel in the US navy, passed through the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean on Saturday. There it will link up with Indian destroyers and submarines off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar islands for a series of war games, according to Indian media reports.
The two countries have held regular joint naval exercises for more than a decade but the latest round has assumed greater significance amid growing concerns over China’s political and military ambitions in
the South China Sea and the greater Indo Pacific region. Chinese troops are still encamped on Indian soil in Ladakh, high in the Himalayas, after
clashes along the border last month that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, the most serious such incident between the rival nuclear powers for 45 years......
Despite forging closer military ties with the US, Delhi has maintained a strategic neutrality between the two sides until now. The pressure has increased under the Trump administration, however, and the recent violence, prompting a surge of anti-China sentiment throughout India, has raised American hopes that Delhi is now leaning towards a closer alliance with the West......
In a further sign that hostilities with China have prompted a strategic rethink in Delhi, India is expected to invite Australia to join its annual naval exercises with the US and Japan. The move will strengthen the “Quad”, an alliance of Indo-Pacific powers that has formed to counter China’s rising sea power.
India had blocked Australia’s participation in the exercises for years, viewing it as too provocative towards Beijing, but Narendra Modi, the prime minister, appears to have had a change of heart. India signed a significant defence agreement with Australia last month, allowing troops from the two countries to use each other’s military bases......
In recent weeks Chinese ships have sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat and harassed Malaysian oil exploration vessels in the South China Sea. With the controversial new security law stripping Hong Kong of its remaining autonomy, China has again laid claim to Taiwan.
India, like the US, has become increasingly alarmed at China’s military expansion throughout the Indian Ocean. Beijing has established its first overseas military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, with a second expected to follow at the Pakistani port of Gwadar, close to the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway at the mouth of the Gulf. In 2018 China acquired a port in Sri Lanka, off India’s southern coast, and has courted India’s neighbours throughout the region, leaving Delhi’s influence in its own backyard looking increasingly fragile.