India, Russia to hold naval exercise

Moscow/New Delhi: Indian naval ships Monday reached Russia's eastern city of Vladivostok on a friendly visit ahead of their bilateral annual maritime war game.

The Indian naval detachment included three missile destroyers, a corvette and a tanker. These warships will engage Russian warships in the 'Indra' series of naval exercises that the two countries hold annually.

Vladivostok is the main base for Russia's Pacific Fleet. It is located less than 100 km east of the Chinese border.

The Indian warships reached the Russian port city after their successful bilateral naval war game 'Malabar' with the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean off Japan early this month.

With Japan busy with tsunami relief and containing the fallout from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, it did not join the nine-day India-US naval war game from April 2.

Japan, which was to send its warships to the 'Malabar' exercise, had ruled out its participation following which India and the US decided to go ahead with the two-nation war game, though its scope had to be scaled down as some important Japanese assets like maritime aircraft were not available.