US and Indian troops start joint exercise as Joe Biden seeks to build up Quad as counterweight to China
- The new administration is trying to strengthen the four-nation partnership, which also involves Japan and Australia
- US military newspaper Stars and Stripes says India is increasingly concerned about Beijing’s growing military strength
The American military has started a delayed joint exercise with India in what analysts said was Joe Biden’s first move to use its Quad partners to assert pressure on China.
The two-week-long annual Yudh Abhyas exercise, which was initially slated to run in October but postponed due to Covid-19, resumed on Monday in the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan, about 160km (100 miles) west of New Delhi, the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported on Friday.
The report said military exchanges between the two armies had been “bolstered by Indian apprehension over China’s growing military might and Beijing’s desire to dominate the region”.
The annual exercise is a bilateral arrangement that started over a decade ago, but its scale has expanded in recent years.
