India, Japan hold joint naval exercise in Indian Ocean amid stand-off with China

We are using the exercises for strategic communications,” Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, director-general of the National Maritime Foundation was quoted as saying in an HT report, adding that the navies were “not there for combat purposes but for signalling."

“We need to be proximate with our friends and the Chinese know there is a direct ladder of escalation between Japan and the United States,” the Vice-Admiral was further quoted in the HT report.

The Indian navy training vessels INS Rana and INS Kulush were joined by the Japanese navy’s JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki, the report said.

Indo-Japan naval exercises are a routine affair now and this was the 15 th such exercise in the span of last three years, the Japanese embassy in New Delhi has said, it added.

Indian Navy conducts joint exercises with its Japanese counterpart bilaterally and also as part of the Malabar Exercises, in which the United States Navy is also a participant.

Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan underscored that while the deployment of the Indian Army was sector-specific, India needed to apply pressure across military theatres and exercises like these reminded China that India could quickly deny air cover to its naval assets in the Indian Ocean adding that “They are still far away from deploying a carrier in the Indian Ocean," the HT report said.

Japan Navy has been expanded and upgraded over the years because of the territorial disputes with an increasingly aggressive China. It has deployed a “helicopter destroyer” and is building a “helicopter carrier” which has a full flight deck, said the HT report.

Further, the Japanese Navy also boasts of best non-nuclear submarines in the world and cutting edge anti-submarine warfare technology.