India invites Japan for naval exercises with US
In a clearly provocative move against China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Japan to join the annual India-US naval war games. Known as the “Malabar exercises,” the war games are to be held in the Bay of Bengal, the northeastern arm of the Indian Ocean, in October.
This decision of the Indian government to make the naval exercises trilateral has been clearly encouraged by Washington as part of its aggressive “pivot” to Asia—that is, the military encirclement of China in preparation for war.
The Malabar exercises have been held annually since 1992, except for a four-year suspension by the US because of Indian nuclear bomb tests in 1998. The US resumed them in 2002, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
On the invitation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Japan, Australia and Singapore participated in those annual exercises in 2007. That led to strong diplomatic opposition from China, and India did not repeat the invitation to Japan until this year.
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/05/indi-s05.html
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