Aboard Carl Vinson, Navy Chief, US commander witness Malabar drill

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 14

Indian Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh and Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday witnessed the Malabar exercise in the Bay of Bengal today.

The US Navy hosted 12 Indian officers aboard its aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. The navies of India, US, Australia and Japan — the Quad countries — are conducting a six-day (October 12 to 17) sea exercise termed as Malabar-phase 2. This comes within six weeks of the first phase of the exercise conducted between August 26 and 29 off Guam, an island territory of the US located 2,500 km east of the Philippines.

Between the two phases of Malabar, the top leaders of Quad had their first physical meeting in Washington in the last week of September.

A statement of the US Navy quoted Admiral Gilday as saying, “This visit to Carl Vinson during Malabar was an important opportunity to see the integration between our navies.”

“Our navies continue to exercise together just as we do right now alongside Japanese and Australian naval forces. There is no doubt our partnership will only continue to grow. Cooperation, when applied with naval power, promotes freedom and peace and prevents coercion, intimidation and aggression,” the statement said.