Yesterday India and the United States kicked off the 2014 Malabar naval exercise, the latest in a series of joint exercises going back over two decades, with the Japanese navy participating as well. This serves as an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate its commitment to naval engagement in the region, to reassure nervous allies in the face of an expansionist China and to refocus the U.S.-India relationship, which is widely seen as off track.
The exercise will consist of activities on and around Japanese territory. According to a statement from the Indian navy, the exercise will include exchanges on carrier strike group operations, maritime patrol and reconnaissance activities and capabilities to interdict ships and combat piracy.
Warships from all participating countries will be involved, including three U.S. guided missile destroyers and the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. The U.S. Navy had proposed to mothball this carrier as a cost-saving measure earlier this year, and a July 1 letter from the deputy secretary of defense to the Senate Armed Services Committee reiterated that retirement might still be necessary if sequestration remains in place.
At an event this morning hosted by the Hudson Institute, Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment warned that under current budget plans, these large surface combatants will be increasingly scarce, especially if they are needed to conduct actual offensive sea control operations against a capable opponent.
At the same time, Clark said, the U.S. also has fewer surface ships available to carry out many of the missions for which sailors will be training during the Malabar exercise, especially since the Littoral Combat Ship program has been curtailed due to cost and performance concerns.
In the meantime, however, the exercise is an opportunity to strengthen relationships with two navies that will be key for the administration’s rebalance to Asia. It is also one of the first major exercises to take place after the election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi’s role as chief minister of Gujarat during a violent period of civil unrest in 2002 led to a visa ban from the United States. However, since Modi’s election, U.S. officials and lawmakers have been at pains to signal their willingness to work with Modi even as tensions remain and recent hopes for rapid progress in military and economic cooperation have only been partially realized. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf stressed that statements from President Barack Obama and the State Department “should make very clear that he is indeed welcome in Washington.”
Republican Congressman Steve Chabot reflected a mix of wariness and optimism while chairing a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the subject yesterday. On the positive side, he asserted that U.S. and Indian strategic interests “converge more than they conflict.” He praised India’s improving relations with Japan, which could lead to greater collaboration “on efforts to respond to China’s unilateral actions in the East and South China Seas.”
On the other hand, he called India’s “implicit support” for Russia’s actions in Ukraine “concerning.” He also articulated U.S. worries about economic access for U.S. firms as well as about discrimination against minorities and women.
Addressing the committee, Nisha Desai Biswal, the assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, said that Modi’s election had created “a historic opportunity to re-energize our relationship.” She pointed to the Malabar exercise as well as this year’s multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in Honolulu, in which the Indian navy is taking part for the first time this year, as signs that the “breadth and depth of our military exchanges and exercises have grown.”
On the Japanese side, the country’s participation is not only a sign of closer ties with India, but is also in keeping with its increasingly proactive military orientation under the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The first bilateral naval exercise between India and Japan was in 2012. A statement on the Japanese Ministry of Defense website ascribes closer defense ties to India’s strategic position “in the center of the sea lanes that connect with the Middle East and Africa,” as well as shared values.
Earlier this month, Abe’s government approved a proposal that would allow the Self Defense Forces (SDF) to exercise the right to collective self-defense while still upholding the pacifism of the Japanese constitution. This is due to a state of affairs, according to the text of the Cabinet decision on the subject, in which “any threats, irrespective of where they originate in the world, could have a direct influence on the security of Japan.”
According to a recent analysis by Michael Green and Jeffrey Hornung, this change would not involve Japan in foreign wars. Rather, the SDF would be able to use minimal force to assist allies in situations where Japan faced a direct threat.
Japan has also signaled a progressively greater willingness to export military equipment manufactured by the country’s high-tech sector.
The U.S. will need all the help it can get in maintaining access to the increasingly contested waters of the Pacific. As Clark pointed out this morning, expanding anti-access capabilities in the hands of China, Russia and others may enable them to keep the U.S. out and act more boldly against their neighbors.