Malabar 07 - Quad Alliance Exercise
Three aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines participation makes it one of the largest
Keeping the Quad Alliance, an apparent talkshop, going, India will host Malabar 07 in Bay of Bengal with Singapore joining in. It's interesting Singapore is taking part in these exercises. At the moment, Singapore is maintaining equi-distance from China and India, with a slight tilt towards China, while occasionally lecturing US about making peace with Chinese rise.
Fighting terrorists and pirates indeed.
The combined units will include three aircraft carriers as well as nuclear submarines and a contingent of the Indian Air Force's Jaguar maritime strike fighter aircraft. The aircraft carriers will include the nuclear powered, USS Nimitz, that recently dropped anchor at Chennai, along with the US Navy's last conventionally fuelled carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk and the Indian Navy's own INS Viraat, which flies the Harrier VTOL aircraft.
The countries taking part in the naval war game are the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore, according to defence ministry officials. The exercise, codenamed Malabar-07, will feature missile destroyers, stealth frigates, nuclear and conventional submarines and tankers besides the carriers. The five-day manoeuvres will also see the Indian Air Force shore-based Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft, configured for a maritime role, in action along side the Indian Navy's Sea Harrier jets operating from the INS Viraat. [India to host massive naval exercise with US, Japan and Australian naval units - domain-B]
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2 comments:
The exercise will raise quite a few eyebrows in the region. It would be interesting to see how well India's navy, with a mix of Russian and British/French equipment, can become compatible with the mainly Western equipment of the other participants.
Singapore is only relatively closer to China (compared to India) economically, but militarily, there is no way it will form an alliance with China. It has already rejected Chinese offers to use their land and bases for military exercises (so Singapore won't use Taiwanese land and facilities), but has already held several land and air exercises with India and I believe there is an arrangement for land exercises in India.
Anonymous, when you say Chinese offers for exercise to Singapore, do you mean Taiwan?
If so yes. Singapore is very much on the side of mainland China - ie the apparent One China policy. I don't think it would do anything to antagonize mainland.
Also, involving Singapore, a non-democracy, in the exercises also provides a way out for the quad-alliance to get around China's talk of alliance against it.
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