Fighting the naval battle

China's navy is the fastest-growing in the world, but a formidable adversary to rein in its might in the Indo-Pacific is taking shape

A fortnight ago, navies of the four quadrilateral countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States of America (US) — trained together in the Sea of Japan in the annual event that has been named Exercise Malabar. This year’s Malabar, hosted by Japan in the Western Pacific, focused on countering attempts by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to take over Taiwan, or to enforce Beijing’s claims over disputed islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea. This provides an opportunity to look at the Indian Navy’s (IN’s) wartime strategies against our two major adversarial navies — the