Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests. CONTEXT Russia has called the four-nation quadrilateral strategic dialogue or Quad as a “devious policy” by western powers to engage India in “anti-China games” . What’s the issue? It expressed concerns about the U.S. Indo-Pacific policy and criticised the Quad. Also, for the first time it has suggested that India-Russia ties could be affected by it. What are Russia’s concerns? India has become an object of the western countries’ persistent, aggressive and devious policy as they are trying to engage it in anti-China games by promoting Indo-Pacific strategies, the so-called “Quad”. At the same time the West is attempting to undermine Russia’s close partnership and privileged relations with India. This is the goal of the U.S.’s very tough pressure on New Delhi in the MTC (Military and Technical Co-operation) area. The incoming Biden administration is also expected to press hard...

CONTEXT Japan’s  Hayabusa2 spacecraft  left  the asteroid Ryugu  a year ago and is expected to reach Earth and drop a capsule containing the precious samples in southern Australia on December 6. The soil samples and data from the asteroid could provide clues to the origins of the solar system. Hayabusa2 Project It is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese space agency, JAXA. It was launched on 3 December 2014 and rendezvoused with Ryugu on 27 June 2018. It carried multiple science payloads for remote sensing, sampling, and four small rovers that will investigate the asteroid surface to inform the environmental and geological context of the samples collected. The scientific objectives of Hayabusa2 mission are twofold To characterize the asteroid from remote sensing observations (with multispectral cameras, near-infrared spectrometer, thermal infrared imager, laser altimeter) on a macroscopic scale To analyse the samples returned from the asteroid...

CONTEXT Vietnam has invited India for ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM Plus) being hosted by Vietnam in December 2020. About ADMM- Plus Consistent with the ADMM guiding principles of open and outward looking, the 2nd ADMM in Singapore in 2007 adopted the Concept Paper to establish the ADMM-Plus. The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region. Eight Dialogue Partners are Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the USA (collectively referred to as the “Plus Countries” ). Agreed five areas of practical cooperation under this mechanism are: Maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations and military medicine. In 2013, a new priority area of humanitarian mine action was agreed.

(Representative image)  India and the UK are in final stages of signing a defence logistics sharing pact, adding to a series of similar agreements with players in the Indo-Pacific that can greatly expand the reach of Indian warships and aircraft in the region. The logistics pact, which will enable reciprocal use of bases and airfields for fuel, supplies and spares, has been under discussion with the UK, besides an agreement on joint training. Once the agreement is signed, India will have pacts with at least seven major nations that have interests in the Indo-Pacific. “India’s military logistics pacts have the potential to substantially enhance the Indian Navy’s operational reach in the Indo-Pacific region. From Reunion to Djibouti and Salalah to Guam, India now has access to the remote reaches of the Indo Pacific. A logistics agreement with the UK will for the first time offer India access to naval facilities in the distant Atlantic,” says Abhijit Singh, who heads the maritime poli...

  (Representative image) In a clear message to China, India and Japan have finalised an ambitious agreement that provides for cooperation in 5G technology, artificial intelligence and an array of other critical areas as the two strategic partners agreed to further broadbase their ties including giving momentum to supply chain initiative in the Indo-Pacific region. This was decided after a meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo on Wednesday, held a day after the Quadrilateral Foreign Ministers’ meet. "Recognising the increasing role being played by digital technologies, the two ministers highlighted the need for robust and resilient digital and cyber systems and in this context, welcomed the finalisation of the text of the cybersecurity agreement," the ministry of external affairs (MEA), said. "The agreement promotes cooperation in capacity building, research and development, security and resilience i...

 The Quad is an informal grouping of likeminded partners formed to deepen cooperation on sub-regional issues and shape a more closely-aligned Indo-Pacific region, Stilwell said.         "Quad membership is driven by shared interests, not binding obligations," he said. Ahead of the second ministerial meeting of the four countries under the Quad — India, Japan, Australia and US — in Tokyo next week, the Trump administration has said the purpose of the group is to establish, promote and secure Indo-Pacific region, especially at a time of increased Chinese “aggression and coercion” in the region. “The Quad seeks to establish, promote, and secure Indo-Pacific principles, especially as PRC tactics, aggression, and coercion increase in the region,” Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David R. Stilwell told reporters during a conference call on Friday. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is travelling to Tokyo next week to participate in the second Qu...

 The Indian Navy has conducted exercises with Russia and ‘Quad’ countries - an informal security forum comprising India (Representative image) The Indian Navy has conducted exercises with Russia and 'Quad' countries - an informal security forum comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia - in a message to China on getting a wider footprint in the Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific region is seen from the west coast of India to the US. The Indian Navy carried out a three-day bilateral maritime exercise with Japan in the north Arabian Sea from September 26, 2020 to September 28, 2020. It was the fourth edition of India-Japan Maritime bilateral exercise JIMEX, which is conducted biennially. The last edition of JIMEX was conducted in October 2018 off Visakhapatnam in India. Naval cooperation between India and Japan has increased in scope and complexity over the years. Advanced level of operations and exercises took place during three days. It is indicative of the continued ups...

The Blue Economy, with its untapped seabed minerals and renewable ocean energy, could prove that light at the end of the tunnel for Covid-19 afflicted India. The nation’s strategic location in the IOR and its potentials as a maritime power is a blessing for both the security of the region and the Indian economy. Indian Navy INDIA’S ROLE AS A MARITIME power is crucial as 90 per cent of trade by volume and over 74 per cent by value takes place via sea routes. More than 80 per cent of India’s energy supplies also arrive along these sea lanes. For many years, we argued that our development planning must be premised on our being a maritime economy. Still, our plans, investment and defence program have remained dominantly focused on our land-based resources. The Indian peninsula is ensconced by seas & oceans. The country’s location in the Indian Ocean, jutting out 1000 miles into it as it does, is of strategic advantage. The peninsula straddles some of the most critical se...

US supercarriers carried out a joint exercise with Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean, and a second one with the other two QUAD members - Australia and Japan - in the Philippine Sea. The USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and units from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force and Australian Defence Force participate in trilateral military exercises in the Philippine Sea(US Navy) As four Indian naval ships participated in a two-day joint exercise with the American supercarrier USS Nimitz off the Andaman coast this week, another supercarrier USS Ronald Regan teamed up with navies of Australia and Japan to carry out a similar exercise 4,000 km away on the mouth of the contested South China Sea. The official statements on the exercises did not name China that has been trying to throw its weight around its neighbours. It didn’t have to as the danger is clear and present with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi clearly stating this week that Beijing was moving to the centre of the globe - in effec...

New Delhi is expected to clear the way next week for formal invitation to Australia following final govt clearance & consultations with US and Japan. File photo of naval ships during the Malabar exercise India plans to invite Australia to join the annual Malabar naval exercise that has so far included just Japan and the U.S., in a move that could risk China’s ire. The decision to include Australia in the drills — the first time all members of the regional grouping known as the Quad will be engaged at a military level — comes as Beijing and New Delhi are caught up in their worst border tensions in four decades. The exercise will bring together the navies of India, Japan, Australia and the U.S. in the Bay of Bengal at the end of the year, according to senior Indian officials who asked not to be identified, citing rules. New Delhi is expected to clear the way next week for a formal invitation to Australia following final government clearance and consultations with the U.S. and Japan, ...