Malabar Exercises

A Chinese observation ship shadowed US aircraft carrier John C Stennis in the Western Pacific on Wednesday. Stennis is joining warships from Japan and India in drills close to the waters Beijing considers its backyard. Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador early on Thursday to express concern after a Chinese navy ship sailed close to what Japan considers its territorial waters in the East China Sea for the first time, increasing tensions over the disputed area.

Blocking China's unfettered access to the Western Pacific are the 200 islands stretching from Japan's main islands through the East China Sea to within 100 kilometres of Taiwan. Japan is fortifying those islands with radar stations and anti-ship missile batteries. Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, Japan and India as permanent partners. It was originally a bilateral exercise between India and the U.S.

Three exercises were conducted before 1998, when the Americans suspended exercises after India tested nuclear weapons.[2] However, the U.S. renewed military contacts following the September 11 attacks when India joined President George W Bush's campaign against international terrorism. Japan became a permanent partner in 2015. Past non-permanent participants are Australia and Singapore.

The annual Malabar series began in 1992 and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises. By joining the drill, Japan is deepening alliances it hopes will help counter growing Chinese power. Tensions between Beijing and Tokyo recently jumped after a Chinese warship for the first time sailed within 38 km (24 miles) of contested islands in the East China Sea.

The outcrops known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China lie 220 km (137 miles) northeast of Taiwan. Wary of China's more assertive maritime role in the region, the U.S. Navy's Third Fleet plans to send more ships to east Asia to work alongside the Japan-based Seventh Fleet, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

For India, the gathering is a chance to put on a show of force close to China's eastern seaboard and signal its displeasure at increased Chinese naval activity in the Indian Ocean. India sent its naval contingent of four ships on a tour through the South China Sea with stops in the Philippines and Vietnam on their way to the exercise.