Vasily Golovnin — about the joint training of India and Japan against ChinaRussian-designed Su-30MKI combat aircraft and American F-15s converged in January in intense training battles in the sky northeast of Tokyo.
This rather unusual event took place within the framework of the first ever joint exercises of the Indian and Japanese Air Forces.
The next exercises are in India
An extended flight from South Asia to the Far East was made by four Su-30MKI, which are manufactured at factories in India under a Russian license. They were accompanied by a tanker aircraft of the Air Force of this country Il-78 produced by the Russian Federation.
On the Japanese side, two F-15s participated in the exercises, as well as a couple of F-2s (this is an American-designed F-16 combat aircraft modernized in Japan). Joint training sessions between the two countries lasted an unusually long time — from January 16 to January 26. At the same time, according to the press, Indian pilots got a chance to control the Japanese version of the F-16 — a very common combat aircraft in the world, which is used by many US allies.
There was no information about whether Japanese military pilots were able to fly the Su-30. The local media generally spoke rather restrainedly about the first exercises in the country using Russian and American aircraft. Apparently, because of the delicacy of the topic, there was not even a single TV report. However, there is no doubt that the Japanese military took a special interest in the Su-30 — aircraft of this model are actively used by the Chinese Air Force. They have repeatedly appeared in the airspace near the island of Taiwan, which is directly adjacent to the remote Japanese islands. Tokyo does not rule out the emergence of a military conflict there in the future.
At the final press conference on the results of joint training, senior military officials from both countries noted the phased nature of the current exercises and reported that their next phase is planned to be held in India. This time, Japanese Air Force combat aircraft will fly to South Asia. This will be a powerful new step towards strengthening military cooperation between the two countries, which is being carried out, as noted by the Kyodo news agency, taking into account, first of all, the actions of China.
Military maneuvers on ocean routes
The current Air Force exercises have complemented a rather impressive set of joint training that the armed forces of India and Japan have been conducting for a long time, demonstrating their military coordination to Beijing. This includes working out the interaction of ground forces units, primarily special forces, and, most importantly, regular naval exercises. They are alternately conducted on a bilateral basis, as well as in the form of multinational Malabar maneuvers with the involvement of the US Navy, Australia and sometimes France. The scale of these exercises is impressive — American and Indian aircraft carriers, submarines, Japanese and Australian missile destroyers, helicopter carriers participate in them.
Malabar initially took place in the Bay of Bengal, but now they have begun to be held in the waters of East Asia in the immediate vicinity of China. The participants of these maneuvers do not hide their intention to maintain military control over the sea transport routes leading from the Far East towards the Persian Gulf zone and further to Europe. The United States has repeatedly stated at various levels that it will firmly defend the principle of freedom of navigation in the East China Sea and especially in the South China Sea, where Beijing has declared about 90% of the water area as its waters. American ships are defiantly conducted through areas that the PRC considers its territorial waters, including the Taiwan Strait. Regular exercises of the US Navy, Japan, and sometimes India are also held there. Approximately half of the total volume of world trade passes through these routes, the main flow of oil from the Middle East. They are vital not only for Japan, South Korea, and other countries in the region, but also for China — it is by sea that this country sends the main part of its goods to the states of the European Union, China's main export partner.
The political basis for the same Malabar exercises was the so-called Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) with the participation of the United States, Japan, Australia and India. This is a rather unusual association — New Delhi has been added to Washington and its two reliable military allies, which declares a policy of non-alignment. The United States and Japan do not deny that the main goal of Quad is to contain China both by means of military pressure and by strengthening quadrilateral economic cooperation. Of course, you will not find such direct words in the documents of the "quartet", but the point about countering Beijing's "assertive actions" wanders from publication to publication of experts commenting on the actions of the Quad. India's position is more subtle and ambiguous.
Without a military alliance with the USA and Japan
India, according to experts in Tokyo, is wary of Beijing, considering it a strategic rival. New Delhi does not forget about the border war with China in the last century, about the regular clashes, including with the dead and wounded, on the still unmarked border between the two countries in the Himalayas.
However, at the same time, India is actively developing cooperation with China in the economic sphere, contacts with Beijing within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. New Delhi is closely watching that the Americans and the Japanese do not involve it in a direct confrontation with China — I think that is why not a word is uttered at Quad working meetings and summits with direct condemnation of Beijing's policy, but everything is limited to arguments about the importance of freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region, the inadmissibility of unilateral attempts to change the current situation. and everything like that.
Tokyo is generally reserved about such a policy of India — the Japanese authorities do not see any sense in quarreling with the rapidly growing and already, apparently, the most populous power in the world. Rather, they are determined to gradually, step by step, draw New Delhi into more distinct anti-Chinese actions, however, it seems that it is not necessary to count on big changes in India's position. It is characteristic, by the way, that Beijing does not publicly condemn New Delhi for increasingly active military contacts with the United States, Japan and Australia. Apparently, India is too important and gaining strength too quickly to quarrel with it openly.
Of course, New Delhi will continue its policy of balance and multilateral diplomacy, it clearly does not seek to formalize a direct military alliance with the United States and Japan. However, at the same time, it significantly demonstrates to Beijing that it has strong allies — and that is why Japanese combat aircraft will soon make a dizzying flight to India to conduct new joint exercises.
