Malabar 2009. Indian guided missile destroyer INS Ranvir, followed by guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald, followed by helicopter carrier JS Kurama. US Department of Defense photo.
From The Pioneer:
Defence Minister AK Antony and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna will head to Japan in November this year ahead of newly elected Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda’s visit here in December, sources said. The dates for Antony and Krishna’s visit are being worked out, the sources added.
Antony, sources said, will propose a joint naval exercise between the Indian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces (JMSDF), the naval branch of Japanese Self Defence Forces. (Link)
These would be the first ever Japan – India military exercises. Japan and India have previously both participated in the annual Malabar exercises. Malabar began life as a U.S. – Indian joint exercise, but expanded to irregularly include other nations such as Australia and Singapore. Lately Japan has been participating in Malabar on odd-numbered years. In fact, the article mentions that Malabar 2011 was to be hosted by Japan and hosted off the coast of Okinawa, but that was cancelled by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
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A contributor and editor at the blog War Is Boring, Kyle Mizokami started Japan Security Watch in 2010 to further understand Japan's defenses and security policy.
Kyle Mizokami has 530 post(s) on Japan Security Watch
1 comment
Robert says:
Oct 11, 2011
I do not know who took the lead here.I am certainly in favor of it. It would be nice to see Japan send a Hyuga class but I think they will as per s.o.p. keep it low key.Again I am in favor of it but… I would like to see Japan take a more aggressive approach in regards to diplomacy,joint ops,soft power ops etc, to some of their closer neighbors i.e. The Phillipines,Indonesia,Taiwan(as dicey as that would be),SoKor,Singapore,etc.I get the impression that Japan sometimes just defers to the U.S. in areas that are critical to Japan wholesale and that tends to short circuit any gains they make with certain other states.India is a good ally but Japan should not cruise past the aforementioned states to get to India.They should have this type of thing with these states early,often,and regularly in addition to India.I am just not convinced that Japan realizes just how hard their future row might be to hoe should things fall a certain way and one should always hope for the best and plan for the worst.
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