India’s power play

India too will join the new power play in East Asia when it conducts joint naval drills with the US and Japan in mid April, off the island of Guam.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who has been eloquent about security cooperation among Asian democracies, has been keen to bring India into the balance of power politics of East Asia.

Much like everyone else in Asia, India too insists that the trilateral defence engagement with the US and Japan has nothing do with China. To ensure that there is no misperception in Beijing, India is sending some of the ships taking part in the trilateral manoeuvres to China for bilateral exercises with the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

Naval diplomacy

India is not the only one stepping up its naval diplomacy. The PLA navy is right now showing off its wares in the Arabian Sea off the Pakistani coast. Travelling nearly 7000 km, two Chinese naval ships arrived recently at the Karachi port to join in a multinational exercise on maritime security.

This is the first time China is participating in multi-national naval exercises. Organised at the initiative of Pakistan, these exercises called “Aman 07”, have drawn forces from such a diverse group of countries as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, and Bangladesh. Iran, too, has sent observers. En route to Karachi, the two Chinese ships carrying nearly 400 personnel stopped over at Colombo for replenishments.

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