India monitored Chinese ships during military drill in South China Sea

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Rebecca Choong Wilkins

India monitored several Chinese ships that appeared in a portion of the South China Sea where a flotilla of Southeast Asian nations’ warships were engaged in military drills, according to a government official.
 

India and Singapore co-hosted the final day of the weeklong Asean-India Maritime Exercise involving nine ships, six aircraft, and over 1,800 personnel from across the grouping’s nations, and were expected to trawl international waters along the transit route to the Philippines. 

The Chinese ships were seen about 100 nautical miles away from the area where the exercises were taking place and did not belong to the country’s navy, said the official, who asked not to be identified citing the sensitivity of the issue. Beijing issued no formal warning or objection to the flotilla from the Asean countries, the person added. 

Defense ministries in both India and Singapore did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though the Republic of Singapore Navy wrote in a Facebook post Monday afternoon the exercise had safely concluded.

“AIME was successfully and safely completed with the conclusion of the sea phase in international waters earlier this morning,” it said. “RSS Supreme will continue in transit to the Philippines and prepare for the upcoming Asean Multilateral Naval Exercise.”

China’s Ministry of Defense also didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comments.

Worries over national security in the Asia-Pacific are rising with countries seeking to bolster their defenses as relations between China and the US struggle to find a floor. Military tensions between India and Beijing have also risen since 2020, when the worst fighting in decades erupted on their Himalayan border. 

The abrupt 90-degree turn of Chinese vessels into the path of the Asean-India maritime exercise was strikingly coincidental, but it’s unclear whether it was directly related, said Raymond Powell, who leads Stanford University’s Project Myoushu on the South China Sea.

Ships participating in the Asean-India security exercises were expected to track simulated vessels of interest and practice dealing with unplanned encounters to reduce the likelihood of accidents or miscalculations. 

Last month, Chinese and Philippine ships came close to collision in the South China Sea, just as the Southeast Asian nation was participating in military exercises with the US. China claims more than 80% of the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, where almost a third of global maritime crude oil trade passes. A 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling in the Hague had invalidated China’s claims.