ON BOARD INS MUMBAI, OFF THE INDIAN COAST (AFP) – The Indian and US navies on Saturday began a week-long series of joint exercises, looking to increase cooperation at a time of heightened fears about maritime piracy.
Codenamed "Malabar", the sea exercises in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa state in western India include the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, and a nuclear-powered US Navy submarine.
"With piracy becoming an international concern, such exercises attain much significance wherein two nations learn each others' procedure," Rear Admiral Anil Chopra told reporters on board the destroyer INS Mumbai.
Some 8,500 personnel are involved in the exercises, the Indian Navy said.
Indian naval officials said on Friday that they were deploying one of the country's latest warships to protect its merchant vessels in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.
The move comes after the Hong Kong-registered MT Stolt Valor carrying mainly Indian crew was hijacked by Somali pirates on September 17, the latest in a string of similar incidents in the area.
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