The aircraft carrier is China first domestically-built ship. Shandong is bigger than China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning and could house 36 fighter jets.
'Unlike on the western and eastern borders where there is an enemy at the gate, here there is an invisible enemy which is building its own capability and can come into play at a time and place of his choosing.'
India has the ability in all respects to be a great power and address our security challenges in the best national interests, says Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in Kochi on Friday, that put India into a select league of countries with domestic capability to build such large war ships.
'I am also concerned over Chinese ambitions in the Maldives and wider Indian Ocean,' former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed tells Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma in an exclusive interview.
A high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral relationship between India and China, the Pentagon has informed the United States Congress. New Delhi remains concerned by China's close military ties with Pakistan and its growing footprint in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa, Pentagon said in its annual report.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
India's decision to heed to Australia's request to be part of the mega naval drill comes in the midst of growing strain in ties with China over the border row in eastern Ladakh.
Aman Kumar Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, an Indian national, was among the 11 crew members of a ship freed after being held hostage for nearly four years by Somali pirates, with a top United Nations official calling for the release of all remaining captives.
US Secretary of State Micheal Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis will travel to New Delhi next month for the 2+2 dialogue.
Nasheed, whose Maldivian Democratic Party functions from Colombo, appealed for India's help.
'There will be much for President Trump and Prime Minister Modi to discuss including growing Chinese military cooperation with Pakistan, which heralds a new attempt by China and Pakistan to neutralise India's influence in its Indian Ocean neighbourhood,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy.
This was the first major request of arms sale purchase by India after Obama designated New Delhi as a major 'strategic defence partner'.
The vessel is slated to be the platform for the first Indian all-women global circumnavigation by the Indian Navy to begin in August.
The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 5, 2020, when a violent clash between the two sides erupted in the Pangong lake area.
China was a major focus during talks between United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Indian political leadership during his two-day visit.
Quoting intelligence reports, the World Net Daily said Al Qaeda "has purchased at least 15 ships in the last two\n\nyears."
This is the fourth of the six submarines the Indian Navy is to induct under the Kalvari-class submarine Project-75.
The United States Navy carried out a freedom of navigation operation in the Indian waters near Lakshadweep Islands on Wednesday without New Delhi's prior consent to challenge India's "excessive" maritime claims, according to an official statement.
Dr S Rajan, India's candidate to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, was re-elected on Wednesday to the Commission for a five-year term from 2012-17 in a meeting of the State Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In the first round, Rajan obtained 112 of the 161 valid votes cast. The election was keenly contested in the Asia-Pacific group with eight candidates in the fray for five seats.
Fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government announced his death, a veteran Tamil nationalist leader claimed in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, on Monday that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, is doing well and said a conducive atmosphere prevails for him to appear now.
Two navy destroyers, the INS Kochi and INS Chennai, fired MR-SAMs simultaneously at two simulated incoming missiles.
In his opening remarks at the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Modi also said that some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policy and the grouping must not hesitate to criticise them.
Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen has said that India is seriously concerned about the maritime challenges posed by piracy, terrorism and trafficking of narcotics, arms and human beings in the Indian Ocean region, where it has the vital stakes in the security and stability of the region.
The Pakistan Navy claimed in Islamabad that it used specialised skills to ward off the Indian submarine from entering Pakistani waters.
Exercise Tiger Triumph -- a full-scale, tri-service beach landing operation -- is a capability India is seeking to build.
China said that military cooperation should be "conducive" to regional peace and stability.
The United States on Friday said China's aggressive posturing over territorial claims in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions was a matter of concern that America shared with India.
'His way of communication is different than the first yatra.' 'Maybe his anger and frustration stems from the fact that no one is asking hard questions to the government and he is trying to do that.'
Six more people died in rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu, taking the toll from heavy northeast monsoon showers to 80 since its onset two weeks ago.
Singh, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a three-day visit to attend a crucial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), pressed for expediting supply of a number of weapons systems, ammunition and spares to India by Russia under contracts which were concluded earlier.
The elephant in the room will permeate the conversations, predicts Rup Narayan Das.
16-year-old Gaurvi Singhvi, who hails from Udaipur, crossed the English Channel in 13 hours and 26 minutes.
Noting that the country was on track to have the largest economy by 2050, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said, "India is a rising giant whose influence is being felt not only in the Indian Ocean, but in the Americas, in Africa, West Asia, and in Central Asia."
The second orbit raising manoeuvre of India's Mars Orbiter spacecraft was performed in the early hours of Friday, three days after its successful launch by PSLV C-25 into orbit around the Earth.
The mesmerizing march included elite marching contingents, missiles, warplanes, surveillance gadgets and lethal weapon systems, with French President Emmanuel Macron gracing the occasion as the chief guest.
Pranab Mukherjee inspected the fleet along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from aboard the INS Sumitra.
Speaking at a defence industry outreach seminar, PM Modi said India's self-reliance on defence capabilities will boost its standing of being a net security provider in the Indian Ocean and make it a defence supplier for many friendly countries, depending on strategic ties.
'Chinese troops are not geared to fight Indian troops who are battle hardened and acclimatised and are far more hardy.'
The search for the missing Flight MH370 will now revert to an area hundreds of kilometers south of the first suspected crash site, an official said on Friday, as months of fruitless scouring in the Indian Ocean has failed to crack the unprecedented aviation mystery.
