'7th Fleet Op Off India Coast Routine, We Value India's Partnership': US

The US values India's partnership on a wide range of issues, including regional security, a Department of Defense spokesperson has said.

The United States has further toned down the discord over a naval operation carried out by that country within India's maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ) last week. The exercise, which did not have India's permission, was conducted off the Lakshadweep coast and had rankled India which immediately registered its opposition via diplomatic channels. "On April 7, the USS John Paul Jones, part of the US Navy Seventh Fleet, conducted a routine Freedom of Navigation Operation in the Indian Ocean. This operation demonstrates longstanding US support for international law and freedom of the seas worldwide," a US Department of Defense spokesperson has said, in an indicator that the US wants to set the record straight. "We value our partnership with India on a wide range of issues, including regional security across the Indo-Pacific," the spokesperson said. The Destroyer USS John Paul Jones had conducted the Freedom of Navigation Operations near Lakshadweep, notwithstanding India's maritime security policy of such exercises requiring its authorisation.