Indian, US warships to conduct exercise in strong strategic signal to China amidst border confrontation

NEW DELHI: In a strong strategic signal to China amidst the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh, a US carrier strike group led by aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on Monday conducted an exercise with Indian warships near the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

The PASSEX (passing exercise) between the two navies, which have built “interoperability” through a series of “Malabar” and other exercises, comes after the mammoth nuclear-powered USS Nimitz and her accompanying warships entered the Indian Ocean by crossing the Malacca Strait on Saturday.

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The USS Nimitz carrier strike group, along with another one led by USS Ronald Reagan, has just completed an operational deployment and “freedom of navigation” mission in the South China Sea in a major show of support for US allies and partners in the region against an aggressive and expansionist China. The UShas 10 Nimitz-class “super-carriers”, each of which is around 100,000-tonne and capable of carrying