Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 18

Amid tension between China and the US over the dispute in the South China Sea, a flotilla of Indian Navy warships today set sail on a long deployment and a set of exercises with countries that are in dispute with China.The flotilla will also participate in the India-US-Japan Malabar exercise to be hosted by Japan at Sasebo —a port city on the East China Sea —waters of which are contested between Japan and China.The Navy’s eastern fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral SV Bhokare, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, sailed out today on a two-and-a-half month long operational deployment to the South China and North West Pacific.Groups of two warships each shall bifurcate from Port Blair onwards and make port calls at Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam and Subic Bay in The Philippines. On the return, the warships will visit Port Klang in Malaysia.All three countries, along with Brunei and Taiwan, are in a dispute with China over the demarcation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the sea. The US Energy Administration estimates that 11 billion barrels (bbl) of oil reserves and 190 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas reserves lie buried under the South China Sea-bed. The US Geological Survey “world petroleum resources assessment” has arrived at as-yet undiscovered estimates of an additional five-to-22 billion barrels of oil and between 70-to-290 Tcf of gas to be under the South China Sea. India has interest in two oil blocks off the Vietnam coast.This is not the first time that the Indian Navy has sent off its flotilla to the South China Sea. The four-ship Indian flotilla will rendezvous somewhere in the South China Sea and set sail for Sasebo—the Japanese port city on the East China Sea. The Malabar exercise will be conducted in the East China Sea. From here, one warship shall be deputed to Hawaii, the headquarters of the all powerful US Pacific Command for a separate set of sea exercises. The remaining three ships will visit Busan in South Korea and Vladivostok in Russia.The warship in Hawaii shall return to India in mid-August while the remaining three will return in July-end after touching base at Malaysia. Indigenously built guided missile stealth frigates, INS Satpura and INS Sahyadri, are part of the fleet.

China for India in SCO

• China on Wednesday said it backed the entry of India and Pakistan into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
• It was willing to work with other members to complete the procedures for their accession, it said PTI