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Showing posts with the label India-Japan-USA

Where Is America in Japan and India's Plans for Asia? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Richard Fontaine)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe (Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Narendra Modi Official) Source- The National Interest Author-  Richard Fontaine The recent visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to New Delhi marks a new step forward in the quickly deepening ties between India and Japan. Each led by a conservative prime minister with a muscular foreign policy, the two countries are motivated by a desire to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region. They are also united by a concern about rising Chinese power and assertiveness and a determination to balance against it. Washington should welcome the new links between its Japanese ally and its Indian strategic partner and encourage their further growth. The new warmth serves American interests in profound ways. By balancing China and ensuring that it rises in a region where the democratic powers are also strong and working together, closer ties between Tokyo and New Delhi he

Malabar 2015: Strategic Power Play in the Indian Ocean ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Abhijit Singh)

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Abhijit Singh Earlier last week, India and the United States held the 19th edition of Exercise Malabar, a joint naval exercise, in the Bay of Bengal. This year, the interactions were an improvement over previous engagements, owing not only to the closely coordinated nature of combat drills, but also because of the presence of Japanese navy that took part in an Indian Ocean iteration of the Malabar for the first time in eight years. Importantly, the interaction has transitioned from being an India-U.S. bilateral engagement into a formal structured trilateral exercise, which maritime analysts say may be aimed at countering growing Chinese military presence in the Indian Ocean. An abiding symbol of warming strategic relations between the U.S. and India, Exercise-Malabar is the most wide-ranging professional interaction the Indian Navy has with any of its partner maritime forces. Even so, the decision to include Japa

Confirmed: Japan Will Permanently Join US-India Naval Exercises ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Franz Stefan-Gady)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady An announcement will be made shortly  re-designating what had hitherto been officially an Indian-U.S. bilateral military exercise into a trilateral India-U.S.-Japan event, according to the Business Standard. And while Japan’s participation is not new—the JMSF have joined in 2007, 2009, and 2014 respectively—it will be the first time that the Japanese Navy will not be a foreign invitee but rather a permanent member of the annual trilateral naval drill. The Malabar exercises initially began as a joint Indo-U.S. naval drill in 1992. After a suspension from 1998 to 2002, due to India’s nuclear weapons tests in 1998, the exercise has been held every year since then under the watchful eye of China. Previous participants include Singapore and Australia. Back in 2007, China went on the diplomatic offensive after the annual Malabar exercise had been dubbed a “concert of

Why the ‘New’ US Trilateral Dialogue With Japan and India Matters ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Prashanth Parameswaran)

Malabar Exercises-2014 ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran On September 29, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted the foreign ministers of Japan and India for the first ever trilateral ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The event was no doubt a significant development. While the United States, Japan, and India have been meeting at the assistant secretary level over the past few years, this meeting between their foreign ministers represents an official elevation of the trilateral dialogue. For close observers of Asian security affairs, this was a long-anticipated development. Though the idea of elevating the trilateral dialogue has been discussed since 2011, the seventh iteration of the U.S.-Japan-India trilateral dialogue held in Honolulu in June was still at the assistant secretary of state level. But as I reported for The Diplomat in July, Vice President Joe B

US Will Hold Elevated Trilateral Dialogue with India and Japan ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Prashanth Parameswaran)

Malabar Series Naval Exercises-2014 ( Source- The Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran The United States, Japan and India will elevate their trilateral dialogue to a ministerial level this fall in another boost for cooperation between the three nations, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced Monday. Speaking at a conference on U.S.-India relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Biden said the three countries would seek to upgrade their existing trilateral dialogue — first held in 2011 — to the level of the foreign ministers. The focus, Biden indicated, would be to strengthen the East Asia Summit (EAS), an annual forum attended annually by the leaders of 18 countries including the United States and India. As the region commemorates the tenth anniversary of the EAS this year, Washington and others have been pushing to deepen its institutionalization and boost its ability to handle glob

Will Japan Become a Permanent Part of US-India-led Naval Exercise? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Ankit Panda)

INS Shivalik entering port at Japan during Malabar exercises in 2014 ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) will likely be a permanent participant in the U.S.-India-led Malabar naval exercise going forward, according to a report by the Yomiuri Shimbun. As Prashanth Parameswaran noted in these pages recently, the MSDF will return to the Malabar exercise this year in October, which will take place in the Bay of Bengal, off the Indian coast. This will be the first time the MSDF will have returned to participate in Malabar in the Bay of Bengal—it first did so in 2007 in a larger exercise which comprised the navies of Australia, Singapore in addition to the U.S. and Indian navies. Malabar began as an annual bilateral naval exercise in 1992 and usually alternates between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. In addition to Malabar 2007, Japan participated in the exercise’s 2009 and 2014 iterations. Its

Japan to Join US, India in Military Exercises this Year ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Prashanth Parameswaran)

Malabar Exercises-2014 ( Image source / Credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran On June 30, The Indian Express reported that Japan would be participating in this year’s Exercise MALABAR, which initially began as a bilateral naval exercise between the United States and India back in 1992. The report cited unnamed sources as saying that this was confirmed at the seventh U.S.-India-Japan trilateral dialogue held in Honolulu last Friday. If so, that would be a significant though not entirely surprising development. Although Japan has participated previously in three iterations of the exercises – in 2007, 2009 and 2014 – media reports had earlier indicated that its involvement this year was not confirmed. New Delhi has previously been anxious about how China would react to efforts to expand the bilateral exercises. When the 2007 edition of the exercises in the Bay of Bengal were expanded to include Japan and Australia, Beijing lashe

U.S.-Japan: A Pacific Alliance Transformed ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Jeffrey W.Hornung)

Image credits- department of State, USA by William Ng Source- The Diplomat  Author- Jeffrey W.Hornung All eyes were on Washington last week, for the visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. One of the focal points was a document that altered security ties between the U.S. and Japan. On Monday, the two countries released new guidelines for defense cooperation, outlining the general framework and policy direction for the roles and missions of the two countries’ militaries. This new document lays out a vision for the alliance that is rooted in bilateralism but is global in scope. Importantly, Japan has emerged as a willing partner in many roles it once considered taboo. Together, this translates into a stronger alliance with broader functions and geographical scope. To quote U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, the updated guidelines will “transform the U.S.-Japan alliance.” The U.S.-Japan defense guidelines had become antiquated. First written in 1978, they specified

Why Washington Is Watching Modi's Moves in the Indian Ocean ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Jhinuk Chowdhury)

INS Mysore -D60 ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Jhinuk Chowdhury If you believe the hype, India is intensifying its ocean diplomacy to counter the growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation visit to Sri Lanka, Seychelles, and Mauritius in March has been seen in this light. But that doesn’t explain what’s really happening. The power tectonics in the region are not between India and China, but are a result of Beijing hedging against Washington’s presence in the region. In the Indian Ocean, Delhi is increasingly aligning with the role that the U.S. wants it to play — that of a “net security provider.” The Indian Ocean bears two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments, one-third of its bulk cargo, and half of its container traffic, and serves as a key trade route between East Asia and Europe. Both the U.S. and China have high commercial stakes here. While the U.S. hopes to secure its trade routes

The United States Should Look East with India ( Sources- The National Interest, Authors- Melissa S. Hersh, Ajay Lele)

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Sources- The National Interest Author- Melissa S. Hersh, Ajay Lele According to the insightful, Nobel Prize winning Amartya Sen, India is prone to being mischaracterized. Accordingly, the United States must see the bigger picture and look beyond India’s fickleness and vacillation in order to recognize that there is a bidirectional relationship that needs to be maintained. This lesson is important to recall during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit last week. As India’s foreign-policy tentacles reach further east and west, Washington’s expectations for U.S.-Indian relations need to remain steady. While India can be a fulcrum for leveraging U.S. interests in both Central and East Asia, it should also be an anchor partner that practices a different brand of democracy that may align with the United States on many—but not all—things. The United States should support India in its efforts to broaden its neighborhood interests and should no