作者： bharat.cn

The Indian Navy has deployed its sole aircraft carrier to the Arabian Sea to keep an eye on a joint military drill between China and regional rival Pakistan.
The INS Vikramaditya, with a fleet of MiG-29K fighter jets on board, has arrived to monitor large nine-day naval exercise ‘Sea Guardians 2020,’ which was kicked off by Beijing and Islamabad in the northern part of the Arabian Sea on Monday.

The Navy spokesperson praised the “high levels of motivation & #willtowin, that were evident onboard the ‘Queen of the Battle,’” as the flagship carrier is often called in India.

Military sources told PTI that the top officials from the Navy HQ were present on board. They also said that the ship was sent on a voyage with “a strategic objective,” but did not disclose further details.

The carrier was reportedly testing out new hardware as well. A prototype of the HAL Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) has successfully taken off from the ship’s flight deck and landed on it on Saturday, military sources told NDTV and Hindustan Times. By doing so, the Tejas has become the first Indian-built jet to land on an aircraft carrier.

China brought five big warships for its drill with Pakistan, including the guided-missile destroyer Yinchuan and the guided-missile frigate Yuncheng, while Islamabad sent two Zulfiquar-class frigates, among other vessels. Pakistan’s Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi said that the joint maneuvers highlight “the long-term relationship and mutual trust” between the nations.

New Delhi has been tracking the increased activity of Chinese ships in the Indian Ocean. Last month, the Indian Navy reported that it had chased away a Chinese surveillance vessel after it had supposedly entered the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in September.

Four events in 2019 portend profound changes in the future of India and Pakistan, neighboring nations umbilically tied by a very complex past. The impact of these events will surely spill over into 2020.
India, shaking off its ‘soft state’ image, sent war planes inside Pakistan to bomb what it alleged were jihadi training camps from which the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019 – which killed 44 Indian soldiers – had been launched.

Delhi followed this up by removing Kashmir’s special status and integrating the state fully with the nation’s mainstream, in a stunning political manoeuvre.

Pakistan, a champion of the cause of Kashmir’s freedom from India, was far from looking at this positively.

In Pakistan, 2019 was the year the might of its military establishment was challenged. The country’s Supreme Court denied a three-year extension to Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa (Though later Pakistan’s National Assembly passed bills to extend Bajwa’s tenure).

Also, an Islamabad court sentenced former army chief and president Pervez Musharraf to death for treason. Even though the Pakistani government is to back Musharraf’s appeal, it’s symbolic of the erosion of the military’s grip on the country.

These verdicts leave an invisible noose hanging over Pakistan’s military headquarters and its real power centre, Rawalpindi.

The naval prototype of India’s domestic Light Combat Aircraft performed an arrested landing on the deck of the INS Vikramaditya. The aircraft carrier is currently deployed to keep an eye on China-Pakistan military drills.
“After completing extensive trials on the Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF), the naval version of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) did a successful arrested landing onboard INS Vikramaditya at 1002 hours on Saturday,” a statement from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.
The maiden landing was praised by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as an important milestone in the development of the naval version of India’s single-engine, delta wing, multirole light fighter, the HAL Tejas.