Reuters, 10/02 17:04 CET
By Sanjeev Miglani
NEW DELHI
(Reuters) – The United States and India have held talks about
conducting joint naval patrols that a U.S. defence official said could
include the disputed South China Sea, a move that would likely anger
Beijing, which claims most of the waterway.
Washington wants its regional allies and other Asian
nations to take a more united stance against China over the South China
Sea, where tensions have spiked in the wake of Beijing’s construction of
seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.
India and the United States have ramped up military ties
in recent years, holding naval exercises in the Indian Ocean that last
year involved the Japanese navy.
But the Indian navy has never carried out joint patrols
with another country and a naval spokesman told Reuters there was no
change in the government’s policy of only joining an international
military effort under the United Nations flag.
He pointed to India’s refusal to be part of anti-piracy
missions involving dozens of countries in the Gulf of Aden and instead
carrying out its own operations there since 2008.
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Source: Euronews
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