Quad navies' chiefs meet amid Russian, Chinese spy ships’ movement in Indo-Pacific

The navy chiefs of India and its partners in Quad – Japan, Australia and the United States – met in Yokosuka near Tokyo on Saturday amid increasing movement of Russian and Chinese surveillance ships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar joined his Japanese, Australian and American counterparts for the meeting, which took place ahead of the Malabar 2022 exercise that will see the warships of the four nations conducting drills.

The navy chiefs of the four nations exchanged views on further enhancing interoperability in future editions of the Malabar drill.

The Indian Navy ships, INS Shivalik and INS Kamorta, arrived at Yokosuka in Japan on November 2 to participate in the Malabar-2022 drill and an International Fleet Review, which would be conducted by Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force on November 6.

The meeting of the four navy chiefs took place even as the movement of the two surveillance ships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in the Indo-Pacific region – one in the Indian Ocean and the other in the territorial waters of Japan – caused unease in New Delhi and Tokyo respectively.

The PLAN’s satellite and ballistic missile tracking ship, Yuan Wang 6, left the Jiangyin Port in China on October 21 and the Indian Ocean region through the Sunda Strait on November 4. The ship entered the Indian Ocean region even as India started preparations for the flight-test of the Agni Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile and issued a NOTAM (or Notice to Airmen for creation) of a no-fly zone over the Bay of Bengal between November 10 and 11.

A source said that the movement of the Chinese PLAN’s surveillance ship in the Indian Ocean region.

The visit of another Chinese PLAN surveillance ship, Yuan Wang 5, at Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka earlier this year had triggered a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Colombo.

Tokyo also lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after a Shupang-class survey ship of the Chinese PLAN sailed northeast through Japan’s contiguous zone west of Gaja Island and entered Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Kuchinoerabu Island on November 2. A Balzam-class surveillance ship of the Russian Navy too was recently sighted sailing in the Sea of Japan.

Admiral Hari Kumar will attend the 18th Western Pacific Naval Symposium on November 7 and 8 at Yokohama in Japan, in addition to taking part in the inaugural ceremony of the Malabar 2022.

India, Australia, Japan and the US in 2017 revived the Quad, ostensibly to build a bulwark of democratic nations to counter China’s hegemonic aspiration in the Indo-Pacific region. The four nations, however, refrain from linking the Malabar naval drill with Quad, which they maintain is not a security coalition.