New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) Navies of India and Japan todaybegan a three-day anti-submarine warfare exercise in theIndian Ocean region to deepen their operational coordinationin the strategically important sea lanes around the twocountries.
Indian Navy's two P-8 I long-range maritimereconnaissance anti-submarine warfare aircraft and two P-3COrion jets of the Japanese Navy will be part of the exercise,said an official of the Indian Navy.
The two P-3C Orions, which are anti-submarine warfareaircraft, landed at naval air station Hansa in Goa today.
The short duration exercise is taking place amid concernsin India and Japan over China's growing presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said aircrew from bothnavies will also have extensive interaction to evolve a"concept of joint operations""This exercise takes the bilateral relations to anunprecedented level of 'Strategic and Global partnership'," hesaid.
Japan Navy has participated in the recent trilateralMalabar exercise along with India and the US.
The three navies have been intensifying their cooperationconsidering China's expansionist behaviour in the critical sealanes.
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono last week had saidthat Tokyo favours a dialogue between Japan, the US, India andAustralia to further boost strategic partnership among thefour countries. PTI MPB ASKASK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.