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Pacific News Minute: Chinese Vessels Shadow US, Japan and India Naval Exercise off Okinawa

Wikipedia Commons
Wikipedia Commons

The annual Malabar exercise is underway ... About 20 ships and 90 aircraft from the US, Japan and India are in the Philippine Sea off the coast of Okinawa...and, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute, they're accompanied by Chinese intelligence ships.

Malabar began as a US-India naval exercise ...when Japan joined two years ago, it became a visible manifestation of Washington's hopes for a broad strategic partnership.  The US and Japan are already close allies, of course, and military relations are deepening with India.  Tokyo and New Delhi have declared an as yet undefined strategic partnership and, during his visit to Washington earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an agreement that allows American ships to replenish and repair in Indian ports, and vice versa.

As a founding member of the Non-aligned movement, though, India seems unlikely to establish any formal defense treaty or risk any confrontation with China. But, both India and Japan are building the military capabilities of smaller US partners, India with Vietnam, Japan with the Philippines.

In an interview with Reuters last week, China's ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, blamed the US for rising tensions. "Before America's so called re-balancing in Asia-Pacific the South China Sea was very quiet," he said, "very peaceful." The US sees the rebalance as a catch-up, as China pushes its smaller neighbors aside in the South China Sea.

As US, Japanese and Indian vessels arrived off Okinawa, China sent intelligence ships to keep watch on Malabar...one took station near the US aircraft carrier John C Stennis...another followed two Indian Frigates into Japanese territorial waters, prompting a protest.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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