Australian Navy Chief, Indian Officials Discuss 5-Nation Exercise
By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI
Within a month of Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson’s visit to India, Canberra has dispatched its Navy chief here for talks with senior Defence Ministry officials.
Royal Australian Navy Vice Adm. Russell Shalders primarily will be discussing the modalities of next month’s naval exercise involving the U.S., Singaporean, Japanese, Australian and Indian navies.
Two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the nuclear-powered Nimitz and conventionally-powered Kitty Hawk, will join the multinational exercises in September, hosted by the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal. The exercise will be the biggest in which the Indian Navy has ever participated.
The venue will be the waters between the coastal city of Visakhapatnam and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. At least 20 warships from five nations will participate, including U.S. Navy submarines.
Though Australia and India officially have denied any move to build a quadrilateral alliance with military objectives, sources say the naval exercise will pave the way for a strategic arrangement among Australia, Japan, the United States and India that would evolve into a military alliance in another 10 years.
Shalders will be visiting both the Eastern Naval Command at Visakhapatnam and the Western Naval Command at Mumbai over the next few days for a first-hand look at India’s growing maritime prowess.
A Índia cada vez mais está ficando do lado ocidental, esta é a conclusão e o porquê....
