India and the US will hold the joint naval Malabar series of exercises off the Okinawa coast from 2-10 April 2011.
The joint naval exercise will see participation from Japanese ships, which will be, for the second time, representing the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force.
The exercise aims to strengthen the stability of the Pacific Region and serve as a learning exercise for the Indian Navy.
The naval drills will concentrate on exercises including anti-submarine and surface warfare; air defence; live-fire gunnery training; and visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations.
India has stopped the participation of other countries in the Indo-US exercises since 2007 when China sent demarches to all participants of the naval exercise held in the Bay of Bengal.
The 2007 Malabar series in the Bay of Bengal was a massive exercise with participation of Indian, US, Singaporean, Australian and Japanese Navies.
