Context: Recently, Indian Naval ships conducted a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with the U.S. Navy’s USS Nimitz carrier strike group near the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
PASSEX

• Four frontline Indian naval ships which included INS Shivalik, INS Sahyadri, INS Kamorta and INS Rana, teamed up with carrier USS Nimitz and three other U.S. ships to conduct the exercise.
• USS Nimitz is the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier.

Key Points

• The USS Nimitz, along with guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton, missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Ralph Johnson, participated in what the US described as a “cooperative exercise” with Indian destroyer INS Rana, stealth frigates INS Sahyadri and INS Shivalik and missile corvette INS Kamorta.
• This U.S. India Joint Naval Exercise sent a strong strategic signal to China amid the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh.
• A hard-nosed display of military intent by India, which has now deployed around 10 Jaguar maritime strike fighters, armed with deadly anti-ship Harpoon missiles, at its Car Nicobar airbase in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago – has amplified the message to China.
• Situated over 1,200km from India’s eastern coast, the A&N Islands overlook the maritime boundaries of southeast Asia and dominate China’s critical sea trade routes passing through the Strait of Malacca.
• Though it was largely a ‘Passex’ (passing exercise), the mammoth nuclear-powered USS Nimitz and her accompanying three warships were significantly transiting through the Indian Ocean Region after completing a “freedom of navigation” operation in the South China Sea, where an expansionist and aggressive China is strongarming its neighbours.
• The IAF has already forward deployed Sukhoi-30MKIs, Mirage-2000s and MiG-29s as well as Apache attack and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters along the land border with China, especially in eastern Ladakh.

Aim: To improve the cooperation between the U.S. and Indian maritime forces and to maximize training and interoperability, which also include air defence.

Impact

• It will enhance both sides' ability to counter threats at sea, from piracy to violent extremism.
• A free and open sea promotes an international rules-based order wherein each country can reach its potential without sacrificing national sovereignty.
• It will also present opportunities to build upon the pre-existing strong relationship between the United States and India and allow both countries to learn from each other.

Other major point of concern

• Apart from that the Navy is keeping a close watch on the movement of Chinese naval ships in the IOR, whose presence has gone up considerably over the years in the name of anti-piracy patrols. In 2017, China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
• Given their strategic location, India is also undertaking a major infrastructure expansion plans on the A&N island chain.
• As per defence sources, the long-pending plans for “force accretion” and “military infrastructure development” at the A&N Islands have “gained a sense of urgency” with China’s aggressive and expansionist moves both along the Line of Actual Control as well as the IOR.
• For this, The Andaman Nicobar Command (ANC) was set up in 2001 as the country’s first — and till now the only — “theatre” command with all land, sea and air forces under one operational commander.