India, Japan naval exercises on Apr 17

With India extending its “look east” policy and 2007 being declared the India-Japan Friendship Year, the Indian Navy is all set to hold an exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) for the first time ever. The day-long trilateral exercise with assets of the US Pacific Command also participating in it, will be held off Yokosuka on April 17, with one group of destroyers from the Vishakhapatnam based Eastern Fleet participating.

The other group of the destroyers will exercise in Qingdao in eastern China with the Chinese Navy on the same day. Explaining the importance of joint exercises, Rear Admiral Pradeep Chauhan said, “The growth of joint exercises has gone up in its scope and complexity. Communication, equipment and procedural inter-operability can be obtained through these exercises.” The trilateral exercise will have four Japanese, two US and three Indian ships participating in the search and seizure operations, war-games and fire power manoeuvres.