By Ankit Panda
The navies of India, Japan and the United States will conduct a trilateral naval exercise in the Northern Pacific.
India, the United States, and Japan are gearing up for the next iteration of the Malabar series of naval exercises. The exercise this year will take place in the northern Pacific and will involve naval assets from all three countries. The exercise is seen as a symbol of growing trilateral security cooperation between these three democracies. The Malabar exercise will precede India’s “Yudh Abhyas” counter-terror exercise in Uttarakhand, which is scheduled to take place in September with U.S. forces, according to a Times of India report. Both Malabar and Yudh Abhyas represent the two most significant military exercises that the Indian armed forces have been involved in since Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral victory.
According to the Times of India, the Indian navy will be sending four to five ships, including a Rajput-class destroyer and a Shivalik-class stealth frigate. The Diplomat was not able to verify which U.S. or Japanese ships will participate in the exercise. ”The warships will first head for the ‘Indra’ exercise with Russia off Vladivostok and then reach the North Pacific towards end-July for the Malabar exercises, which apart from India and U.S. will include Japan,” notes one anonymous Indian official.
Read the full story at The Diplomat