A task force of four warships of India's Eastern Fleet will head out on a two-month overseas deployment to Southeast Asia, South China Sea, and the Western Pacific starting this month.
The deployment will include naval war drills with Quad allies the United States, Australia and Japan, India's defense officials announced Monday.
The deployment of the Indian naval task force will begin early this month and will include the guided-missile destroyer Ranvijay, guided-missile frigate Shivalik, the guided-missile corvette Kora, and the anti-submarine warship Kadmant.
The latter three warships are indigenously equipped with a wide arsenal of weapons and tracking systems and are built in India's homegrown defence ship-building facilities.
In other bilateral naval exercises during the deployment, the Indian naval vessels will team up with naval assets from South China Sea littoral states, including Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, the Indian Defense Ministry said.
According to India's defence ministry statement, the deployment seeks to highlight the operational reach, solidarity, and peaceful presence with friendly nations toward ensuring good order in the maritime region and to strengthen existing relations between India and nations of the Indo-Pacific.
India's navy carries out regular maritime deployments to friendly foreign nations including the Indian and the Pacific Ocean domain as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's SAGAR initiative, or Security and Growth for All in the Region.
In a report by CNN, it said the South China Sea has become a hotbed of naval activity in the past weeks. A British carrier strike group cruised through the 1.3 million-square mile waterway last week, while a U.S. surface action group, and military assets from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted exercises in the area.
Collin Koh, a research associate at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies that focuses on naval affairs, said India's naval deployment is the country's most visible 'show of flag' presence east of the Malacca Strait.
India's maritime initiatives enhance coordination between its naval forces and friendly nations, based on shared maritime interests and commitment toward freedom of navigation at sea, India's naval officials said.
Koh said he does not expect the Indian warships to show a confrontational behavior, or launch any freedom-of-navigation activities near Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea.
