Today a very strange event happened in the Indian Ocean, USA was trying to intimidate its own strategic ally – India by entering its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without seeking prior consent. USS John Paul Jones, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer was spotted 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands of India. This led to huge disappointment in the Indian masses. A similar situation happened in 2019 when a Chinese Vessel intruded India’s EEZ which was repelled by the Indian Navy.
“We conduct routine FONOps (Freedom of navigation operations) as we have done in past and continue to in the future,” said the 7th fleet statement. The US Navy generally carries out FONOps in the disputed region of the South China Sea to send a message to China, this is an unprecedented move against a strategic ally. At this point, the US is acting like a bully to its friends, and at the same time when it couldn’t stand up to China. Is this any different from the time when former President Donald Trump was cozying up to N. Korea and at the same time threatening to leave Japan and S. Korea to defend themselves? But American media hasn’t yet picked up on this issue.
The irony is navies of India and the US have just concluded multilateral drills in the Indian ocean with France, Japan, and Australia from April 5 to April 7. The US Govt. needs to get its act together if it wants to counter China’s dominance over the world or it can kiss its position as THE superpower in the world goodbye if it continues to disappoinrt its own allies.
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