New Delhi: Amid an ongoing standoff with China in the northern borders in eastern Ladakh and latent hostilities elsewhere including in the Indian Ocean region, there are indications that India may participate in the world’s biggest maritime exercise ever to have been held if it goes for the biennial US-hosted “Rim of the Pacific” exercise or RIMPAC.
RIMPAC 22 is scheduled to be held this summer a few months from now in both Hawaii and San Diego. While the hosts - the US Navy - has not yet disclosed the names of the participating nations, RIMPAC 22 - the 28th in the series - will see the participation of about 27 “like-minded” partner nations who have committed 41 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, and about 25,000 personnel.
Indicating the extensiveness of the upcoming mammoth exercise, a US Navy release said: “The size and scope of RIMPAC 2022 are expected to more closely resemble the 2018 iteration following a scaled back version in 2020, but with COVID mitigation measures in place.” India’s participation if it takes place is likely to upset China.
Although the Indian Navy spokesperson refused to say anything on whether India would participate in the exercise or not, India participated in RIMPAC 2018 along with 26 other countries. RIMPAC 2020 - because of COVID - was scaled down to include only 10 nations, 22 ships, one submarine, and about 5,300 personnel when it was held near Hawaii from August 17 to 31, 2020.
India first participated in RIMPAC in 2014 when it sent the INS Sahyadri, an indigenously built Shivalik Class stealth multirole frigate. In 2016, it deployed the INS Satpura for the event. In 2018, it was again the INS Sahyadri. Before 2014, the Indian Navy was an observer for the 2006, 2010 and 2012 editions of the exercise.
First begun in 1971 as an annual exercise by the US, Australia, and Canada, from 1974, it became a biennial event. If India participates, RIMPAC 22 would be the first edition of the US-led exercise that India will join after hostilities broke out between Indian and China from April 2020 onwards which has since seen the mobilization and deployment of about 1,00,000 soldiers by both sides along the LAC.
The India-China relationship took a plunge particularly after the violent Galwan incident on the night of June 15 that claimed the lives of 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers. Although negotiations are on between the Indian and Chinese sides, including 15 rounds of senior military commander-level talks, disengagement and de-escalation is yet to take place.
The Indian Navy, along with the United States Navy (USN), the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) already participate in ‘Malabar’, a maritime exercise in the Indian Ocean. These four countries are members of the ‘Quad’ or the ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ which is understood to be a grouping based on an anti-China platform. The ‘Quad’ states its commitment for a free, open, inclusive Indo-Pacific as well as a rules-based international order.
Even as the relationship between the US and China is anything but warm at the moment, China was part of the 2014 and 2016 editions of RIMPAC, the invitation was taken back in the 2018 exercise due to its belligerent activity in the South China Sea.
