India, Russia and all that

Another perspective on the way the Indian Ocean power game is being played:

The officially claimed purpose of the drill at sea was to strengthen cooperation, trust and mutual understanding between two naval powers and contribute to regional stability. As it was noted officially "the exercises would also include operations relating to maintaining maritime order at sea - counter piracy, counter terrorism, anti gun running and drug smuggling.
But this seems too vague and lame to be a purpose of such a drill. Lets start, first of all, from "counter piracy and counter terrorism." Does anyone can sincerely believe that the missile cruisers will be hunting down the pirates? Or maybe the nuclear submarines will? As for the "regional stability" it seemed okay even without the naval drill. Which is actually seems more like a tool of destabilization. It is known that India enjoys naval supremacy over its only probable opponent – Pakistan. In the case of a conflict Pakistani Navy don't stand a chance. Another foreign Navy will have to back it up – probably the American one, as Islamabad is considered to be the US ally in the region. So the Indian Navy was training to fight…You got the hint?

Well, it is pretty subtle...

You can just enjoy the pretty red arrow which points to one route (through Indian waters) to the Strait of Malacca. Sort of a reminder about sea lanes.