India-U.S.-Australia-Japan Malabar Exercise Gets Underway

Nov. 3, 2020 (EIRNS)—The annual Malabar naval exercise has kicked off in the Indian Ocean, today, with naval vessels from India, the U.S., Australia and Japan. The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain is representing the United States in the annual exercise, which “advances the planning, integration and employment of advanced warfare tactics between participating nations,” according to a Navy statement, reported Stars & Stripes. “Malabar provides an opportunity for like-minded navies, sharing a common vision of a more stable, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, to operate and train alongside one another,” the ship’s commanding officer Cmdr. Ryan T. Easterday said in the statement. China, of course, is not “like-minded” and so the U.S. intention, as intended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is to aim it at the Chinese.

The first phase of the exercise runs through Nov. 6 in the Bay of Bengal, with the second phase running from Nov. 17-20 in the Arabian Sea.