Konkan Shakti exercise: India-U.K. to launch phase of high-level exchanges
The Hindu
UK Carrier Strike Group will participate in a bilateral exercise with Navy
With the arrival of the UK Carrier Strike Group on Thursday on the western coast, India-U.K. ties will gear up for a phase of high profile engagements.
The Strike Group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth is on a “non-provocative” exercise in the Indo-Pacific region in what is being interpreted as the biggest British naval deployment since the end of the Cold War. The phase of engagement, which begins on Thursday, will stretch into the COP26 summit for climate action in Glasgow in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to participate.
The UK Carrier Strike Group has traversed through the Philippine Sea to the Bay of Bengal and in the process has travelled through the sensitive South China Sea which is in the middle of an international dispute because of China’s claims over the strategically located water body.