India, Japan, and U.S. Put on a Show for China

The United States, India, and Japan are kicking off the Malabar naval exercises today, in the largest version to date of the annual drills that have put China on edge. Reuters:

Military officials say the drills involving the U.S. carrier USS Nimitz, India’s lone carrier Vikramaditya and Japan’s biggest warship, the helicopter carrier Izumo, are aimed at helping to maintain a balance of power in the Asia-Pacific against the rising weight of China. […]

The Indian navy said the exercises would focus on aircraft carrier operations and ways to hunt submarines.

The navy has spotted more than a dozen Chinese military vessels including submarines in the Indian Ocean over the past two months, media reported days ahead of Malabar.

The Malabar drills are not officially directed at any particular country, but in recent years they have increasingly annoyed the Chinese. In 2015, Japan became a permanent member of the exercises, sparking anxiety in Beijing about a U.S.-India-Japan axis. And this year, the message to China is none too subtle: by focusing on tracking submarines, the parties are clearly signaling their displeasure with the expanding network of Chinese subs in the Indian Ocean. It is also no coincidence that the U.S. cleared a deal to sell surveillance drones to India last month, just weeks ahead of the Malabar drills. With a combination of surveillance equipment and naval cooperation, the U.S. is helping India keep a watchful eye on China’s maritime activities. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese are keeping a close watch on the Malabar exercises themselves: according to First Post, Beijing has deployed a surveillance ship to the Indian Ocean to snoop on the drills. With the Indian and Japanese navies cooperating more closely at the encouragement of the U.S., China may finally be starting to feel some more forceful and coordinated pushback against its maritime moves.

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