NEW DELHI: India and the US now plan to undertake ‘sea patrols’ and share intelligence in real-time to further expand their bilateral maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific as well as partner in new domains of space, cyber and artificial intelligence, with an eye firmly on a belligerent China, a senior defence ministry official said on Wednesday.
“Both countries expressed willingness and there was a broad understanding on the sea patrols as well as information-sharing, through satellites and other means, during the ‘two-plus-two’ dialogue in Washington last week,” the official said.
India and the US regularly conduct the top-notch Malabar naval exercise, along with the other two ‘Quad’ countries of Australia and Japan, as well as provide refuelling and operational turnaround facilities to each other’s warships under a reciprocal military logistics pact.
The plan to undertake sea patrols, whether in a joint or coordinated manner, will be a significant step forward in the backdrop of the increasing forays by China — which already has the world’s largest navy with 355 warships and submarines — into the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
With defence minister Rajnath Singh also separately meeting his US counterpart
