Indian Ocean

India signed a $3.5 billion deal to buy MQ-9B drones — the SkyGuardian variant of the famed Reaper — from the United States.

Washington privately warned of the danger of China using them to establish listening stations, a report claims.

An Indian Ocean island which hosts an important U.S.-UK military base and listening post is going to be given away by the British government.

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen on Monday claimed responsibility for missile attacks against three civilian ships in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, plus drone attacks on two U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar says India has 21 ships deployed to protect commecial shipping from terrorism and piracy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Tuesday that Iran had tripled its production of uranium enriched to 60 percent.

India has quietly banned its growing domestic drone industry from using Chinese parts due to fears of security vulnerabilities.

President Joe Biden claimed his administration has plans to build a railroad from “the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.”

China recently deployed a survey vessel to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port — which Colombo ceded to Beijing on a 99-year lease in 2017 after defaulting on debt to China — Reuters reported on Thursday, noting that the vessel’s deployment to Sri Lanka has irked nearby India which denounced the Chinese research mission as a possible threat to New Delhi’s “security and economic interests.”

Madagascar Police Minister Gen. Serge Gellé told reporters on Tuesday he swam for 12 consecutive hours in the Indian Ocean from Monday night through Tuesday morning until he reached a shore near Madagascar’s Mahambo town after he survived a helicopter crash that left him stranded in the sea, Sky News reported Thursday.

Kenya on Thursday opened a new port in the northern city of Lamu, financed with a $3 billion investment from the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), an enterprise owned by the Chinese government.

Japan announced this weekend it would provide India with $2 billion in loans and grants to fund infrastructure projects, including the improvement of a power supply system in the strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal.

India seeks to arm allied countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) with various heavy weapons systems including missiles, radar, and tanks, the Indian defense ministry said on Thursday.

An underwater drone recovered within Indonesian waters last month is of Chinese origin, defense analytics firm Janes confirmed Sunday.

The navies of the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan began exercises on Tuesday in the Northern Arabian Sea, launching the second phase of a joint “Malabar 2020” naval drill viewed by observers as a regional deterrent to China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday approved construction of a naval logistics hub on the Red Sea coast of Sudan with the capacity to harbor nuclear vessels, Reuters reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed China for operating as a regional “predator” during an official visit to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Four members of an indigenous tribe in India’s remote Andaman Islands have tested positive for the coronavirus, Indian health officials said on Thursday.

Indian Navy warships together with the United States Navy coordinated a joint maritime exercise in the Indian Ocean on Monday, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Tuesday.

Indian and Japanese warships conducted a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, in an exercise involving two warships from each country’s navy, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.

Iran’s navy celebrated Thursday as it successfully test-fired a new cruise missile just weeks after 19 of its sailors were killed and 15 others seriously injured in a friendly fire incident.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was conspicuously invisible during the worst periods of the coronavirus epidemic in January, earning him as much criticism as his authoritarian regime would allow from its subjects, who accused him of everything from poor leadership to cowardice. Xi’s travel plans during January took him to Myanmar, which he has been working to bring closer to China ever since the West recoiled in disappointment and horror from Myanmar’s abuse of the Rohingya Muslims.

The “top levels” of the Malaysian government long suspected the disappearance of a plane almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said.

Iran is equipped with sophisticated, long range intercontinental drones now being used to monitor U.S. shipping in the Indian Ocean, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi claimed on Tuesday.

China is building one of its “most advanced” naval warships, considered “the largest and most powerful combat vessel” it has ever exported, for its ally Pakistan as part of a major bilateral arms deal to maintain “the balance of power in the Indian Ocean” and strengthen Islamabad’s military capabilities, the state-run China Daily reported Wednesday.

Another global warming scare story bites the dust: fragile islands and atolls in the Pacific are not sinking beneath the waves because of global warming. In fact, they are doing just fine.

The Maldives – that Indian Ocean island group allegedly most threatened by global warming –  is building a new runway at its international airport.

India reportedly tested a long-range ballistic missile last week, the subcontinent’s fifth such test, which traveled 3,000 miles and is capable of reaching China.

At least 56 people have drowned over the past 24 hours, and dozens remain missing, after human traffickers forced 300 African migrants off two Yemen-bound boats and into the sea.

Israel has delivered emergency supplies to Sri Lankan authorities as they struggle to cope with the impact of floods and mudslides that have killed nearly 200 people and displaced more than 80,000 from their homes in recent days.

Iran’s navy began an annual drill Sunday near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, its first major exercise since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, state television reported.

Malaysian officials have confirmed a report that the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines 370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, flew a path into the southern Indian Ocean on his flight simulator — a new piece of information that arouses suspicions once again on Shah’s state of mind when the plane disappeared two years ago.

Contents: India deploying ‘submarine killer’ planes to counter China’s submarines; India to build satellite tracking station in southern Vietnam; China demolishes Southern Mongolian herders’ homes in mid-winter

A man on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, located near the African nation of Madagascar, contacted former military pilot Xavier Tytelman about wreckage found there which he believes may be missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. “I’ve

India and China battle for strategic influence in the Indian Ocean; Questions continue to swirl in Russia over assassination of Putin’s opponent