Amid raging tension in the Korean peninsula, the US is moving some of its key military assets, including a warship and a sea-based radar platform, closer to the North Korean coast to monitor Pyongyang's military moves.
A Chinese submarine's reported "inadvertent encounter" with an underwater sonar apparatus towed by a US destroyer in the South China Sea was probably an accident, the state media reported on Monday. Citing Chinese military experts, 'China Daily' said that the submarine's collision with the sonar array connected to the USS John S McCain while sailing near the Philippines probably occurred due to a "misjudgment of distance".
The navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia on Tuesday held a series of complex manoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal, kick-starting the four-day-long first phase of the Malabar naval exercise, seen as a prelude to future military cooperation among the member nations of the Quad or Quadrilateral Coalition.
The second phase of the mega exercise is scheduled to be held from November 17 to 20 in the Arabian sea.
The exercise is taking place at a time India and China are locked in a nearly six-month-long bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly strained their ties.
In the lead up to this week Indo-US Strategic Dialogue, for which United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be coming to Delhi, the Indo-US defence engagement is even more intense than usual.