[The annual series of naval exercises, known as the Malabar series, began in 1992. This year’s event was the largest to date, and the first to feature carriers from all three navies. The games are unfolding under tense circumstances, nearly a month into an aggressive standoff between Chinese and Indian border forces in the Himalayas.]
By Hari Kumar and Ellen Barry
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American
and Japanese ships during the inauguration of joint naval exercises with
India
on Monday in Chennai, India. Credit Arun Sankar/Agence
France-Presse
— Getty Images
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NEW
DELHI — The navies of India,
Japan and the United States began a set of war games on Monday with a
particular target: submarines capable of sliding unannounced into the deep
waters of the Indian Ocean, silently taking positions near the Indian
coastline.
It is not a mystery whose submarines are at
issue. Last month, the Indian Navy announced a plan to permanently station
warships to monitor movement through the Strait of Malacca, where many Chinese
vessels enter from the South China Sea. And in recent weeks, navy officials
here have reported a “surge” of Chinese military vessels entering the Indian
Ocean.
Routine maritime exercises have long served
as a gauge of India’s uneasy relationship with China, prompting a shrug or a
blast of condemnation, depending on the circumstances.
The annual series of naval exercises, known
as the Malabar series, began in 1992. This year’s event was the largest to
date, and the first to feature carriers from all three navies. The games are
unfolding under tense circumstances, nearly a month into an aggressive standoff
between Chinese and Indian border forces in the Himalayas.
On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi
took the unusual step of warning its citizens to be especially cautious
traveling in India for the next month.
Against that backdrop, the influx of Chinese
warships into the Indian Ocean is another indicator of Beijing’s displeasure,
said retired Adm. Anup Singh, who has overseen the exercises in the past.
“They are deliberately upping the ante in
order to flag their posture to people who are concerned,” Admiral Singh said.
“The Indians, the Japanese and the Americans. So they deliberately do it as a
pinprick.”
Though India’s Navy is dwarfed by China’s,
India holds a strategic advantage in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, which
stretches 470 miles to the northwest of the Strait of Malacca, a “choke point”
connecting the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.
This position, which could be used to put
pressure on Chinese supply lines, is an increasing focus of cooperation between
India, the United States and Japan. Monday’s China Daily, an English-language
government newspaper, referred apprehensively to the maritime exercises in an
editorial, noting that the Indian Ocean is one of China’s main conduits for
trade and oil imports.
“It is China that should feel ‘security
concerns,’” it concluded.
China’s submarine fleet has expanded rapidly
in recent years. The country has assumed control of Pakistan’s Gwadar Port,
finalizing plans to sell eight submarines to Pakistan, and opening its first
overseas military logistics supply facility in Djibouti.
For Indian leaders, who for centuries have
focused on contested northern borders, this has required a sudden shift in
attention to 4,700 miles of southern coastline, along which much of the
country’s security and energy infrastructure is concentrated.
“This is a tectonic shift in India’s security
calculus, that it has to protect its southern flank,” said Brahma Chellaney, a
professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research. One response,
he said, would be “a concert of democracies to rein in these muscular
activities.”
Both Japan and the United States have
expressed eagerness to team up with India on its maritime frontier. Last month,
the United States agreed to sell India 22 advanced surveillance drones, which
could be deployed to the Strait of Malacca and used to track Chinese naval
movements. The drones can be used in concert with the American-made P-8I
Poseidon surveillance aircraft, which are already staged on the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.
The Indian government has signaled that it is
willing, after many years of resistance, to expand security infrastructure on
the archipelago. In May, a wildlife board approved the creation of missile
testing and surveillance facilities on Rutland Island, a project first proposed
in 2013.
Last year, Japan became the first foreign
government allowed to build infrastructure on the archipelago — a 15-megawatt
power plant. But it is eager to break ground on a range of other connectivity
projects, said Darshana M. Baruah, a research analyst at Carnegie India. When
Mr. Modi visited Japan last year, the two leaders agreed on a plan to develop
“smart islands,” as part of a set of projects in sensitive frontier areas.
This week’s naval exercises will involve the
United States’ Nimitz, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier; India’s I.N.S. Vikramanditya,
a Russian-made aircraft carrier; and Japan’s JS Izumo, a helicopter carrier, as
well as 13 other warships and submarines. Japan is participating for the second
year in a row. A decade ago, China was infuriated when the three countries
teamed up with Australia for naval exercises, applying immediate diplomatic
pressure that prompted Australia to withdraw.
This year, Australian military officials
asked for their country to take part as an “observer,” but India rejected the
idea.
