NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Capping a series of high level visits by top United States defence brass to New Delhi, India and US will commence a three-day joint naval exercise off the Arabian Sea coast from December 15.
The search and rescue exercises will involve two Indian naval warships, a coast guard ship and an American naval aircraft.
This will be the first such exercise after the post-Pokhran thaw in the Indo-US relations.
Highly placed naval sources said they were hopeful that with the surrender of Kandahar by the Taliban, more US naval warships, currently engaged in US military operations against Afghanistan, could take part in the exercises.
The sources said five other navies, including observers from Maldives and Sri Lanka, could participate in the exercise.
The joint exercises will be followed by a meeting of the Indo-US military steering group of the three services, which would chart out holding of bigger joint inter-services exercises on land and sea.
Tell us what you think of this report
Call India
