US and Japanese (right), Navy ships are pictured docked at a harbour during the inauguration of joint naval exercises with India in Chennai on July 10. India began holding naval exercises with the United States and Japan off its south coast, seeking to forge closer military ties to counter growing Chinese influence in the region. (AFP)

NEW DELHI, July 10, (Agencies): A 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.DrillsThe maritime drills are taking place as India and China are locked in a standoff on their land border in the Himalayas. 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.India and the United States were for decades on opposite sides of a Cold War divide but have in recent years become major defence partners. China has in the past criticised the exercises as de-stabilising to the region. India this year turned down an Australian request to join the exercises for now, for fear that would antagonise China further.The Indian navy said the exercises would focus on aircraft carrier operations and ways to hunt submarines. The navy has spotted more than a dozen Chinese military vessels including submarines in the Indian Ocean over the past two months, media reported days ahead of Malabar. “Naval co-operation between India, US and Japan epitomises the strong and resilient relationship between the three democracies,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement.The border stand-off on a plateau next to the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim, which borders China, has ratcheted up tension between the neighbouring giants, who share a 3,500 kms (2,175 miles) frontier, large parts of which are disputed.SteppedChina has stepped up its activities in the Indian Ocean in recent years, building ports in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The area also features heavily in Beijing’s new One Belt One Road initiative to revive ancient trade routes from Asia, which has caused concerns in New Delhi.Troops from the two nucleararmed neighbours have for weeks been engaged in a stand-off on a disputed section of land high near what is known as the trijunction, where Tibet, India and Bhutan meet.China has alleged that the Indian troops are on its soil, but both Bhutan and India say the area in question is Bhutanese territory. The maritime exercises come weeks after US President Donald Trump declared that ties between Washington and New Delhi had “never been stronger” as he held his first talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Beijing already claims large swathes of the resource-rich South China Sea and East China Sea, putting it in competition with Japan and other countries in the r