US leads biggest drills with India, Japan to counter China

US aircraft carrier strike group began naval exercises with India and Japan on Monday that the US navy said would help the three countries tackle maritime threats in the Asia-Pacific region.The annual exercises named Malabar are being held off India. They are the largest since India and the United States launched the exercise in 1992. Japan was later included.

"Malabar 2017 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises that has grown in scope and complexity over the years to address the variety of shared threats to maritime security in the Indo-Asia Pacific," the US Pacific command said.

Military officials say the drills involving the US carrier USS Nimitz, India's lone carrier Vikramaditya and Japan's biggest warship, the helicopter carrier Izumo, are aimed at helping to maintain a balance of power in the Asia-Pacific against the rising weight of China.

The three countries have been concerned about China's claims to almost all of the waters of the South China Sea, and more broadly, its expanding military presence across the region. Chinese submarines, for example, recently docked in Sri Lanka, an island just off the southern tip of India that it has long seen as squarely in its back yard.

The US Pacific command said in a statement the exercises would help the three countries operate together and it was learning how to integrate with the Indian navy.