NEW DELHI, July 20:
Amid border confrontation with China in Eastern Ladakh, US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and world’s largest warship USS Nimitz will exercise with the Indian Navy near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Monday.
The aircraft carrier is armed with F/A-18F Super Hornets as well as F/A-18E Super Hornets.
The US-India Passex (passing exercise) involving the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group off the Andaman and Nicobar coast in Malacca Strait will send out a strong and clear message to China which has been trying to aggressively expand its borders by illegally encroaching on land and sea belonging to its neighbours.
The India-US Passex in Malacca Strait comes just a few weeks after the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt strike groups carried out wargames in the Philippine Sea.
The show of strength by the US Navy involving two of its most lethal carrier strike groups near the maritime boundary of China was a clear signal to the communist nation to not rile its neighbours.
USS Nimitz and Indian Navy’s Passex exercise in Malacca Strait, the narrow stretch between Malaysia and Indonesia and one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, will strengthen the bond between the two nations.
Malacca Strait is a crucial global sea lane through which considerable global oil flows to the rest of Asia including China.
