Exactly two months after making a controversial port call in Chennai, the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is all set to return to the Indian shore as a part of an US flotilla participating in a five nation naval exercise beginning in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday.
The largest show of maritime prowess in the Bay of Bengal involving USA, Australia, Japan, Singapore and India, has already created a sense of unease in Beijing, which feels the exercise is an attempt to create a regional group to corner the Red Dragons.
But a top US official had denied any such intention. “The manouvres are not aimed at forming a front against China.
There is no effort on our part or any of these other countries to isolate China,” said Admiral Timothy J Keating, who heads the Pacific command of the US Navy.
Along with the leviathan, USS Nimitz, and conventionally-powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and nuclear submarine USS Chicago will participate in the four-day war game to be held between Vishakhapatnam and the west coast of Andaman and Nicober islands.
The gathering of 26 battleships is the largest assembly of warships in the Bay of Bengal since the 1971 Bangladesh war when US aircraft carrier USS Enterprise came close to the Indian shore signifying USA’s disapproval of active Indian involvement in liberating Bangladesh.
Almost three decades later, the Indian navy will be an equal, signifying a definitive shift in the foreign policy. The Indian contingent will be represented by its lone aircraft carrier INS Viraat, a Delhi-class destroyer, a Talwar-class stealth frigate, submarines, a tanker and the Sea Harrier naval jets of the eastern naval command.
In addition, US navy’s F-18/A super hornets, F-14 and F-15 fighters will provide the air cover for the exercise, which will also involve two battleships each from Australia and Japan and a missile frigate from the Singapore navy.
Describing the exercise as a symbol of growing influence of US imperialism on Indian foreign policy, the Left parties are up in arms. CPM leaders Jyoti Basu and Prakash Karat are slated to launch anti-exercise rally in Kerala and Kolkata on Tuesday.
This will be the first big-time engagement between Indian and Australian navies in the Indian waters. An Indian warship had made port calls at Perkth and Sydney in the past and an Australian warship had arrived in Goa in 2006 but exercises were called off due to bad weather.