A Warning To China? India And Indonesia To Conduct First-Ever Joint Air Combat Drill

In what appears to be a warning to China, India and Indonesia have agreed to hold their first-ever joint air combat exercise. New Delhi has also offered to train Indonesian Navy personnel in submarine operations, Times of India reported on Thursday. China’s rising adventurism is connived as a threat in the region and has forced smaller countries to forge closer military and economic ties with India.

Last year, India agreed to help Vietnam in training pilots for its newly-acquired Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets. Indonesia has also ordered a variant of the same fighter jet and India operates at least 250 of these fighters. India is also training Vietnamese sailors at the Submarine Training Base in Visakhapatnam. Commonality in platforms has helped India cooperate with both these nations.

India and Indonesia have also agreed to upgrade their joint army exercise, Garuda Shakti. The fourth edition of this exercise was held at Magelang in Indonesia in March 2016. Navies of the two countries have been conducting coordinated maritime patrol in the Indian Ocean, twice a year since 2002, to safeguard trade routes in the region.