COCHIN: In this file photo, Indian naval officers stand guard during the launch of the indigenously-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant at the Cochin Shipyard in Kochi. - AFP

NEW DELHI: India is flexing its maritime muscles to counter growing Chinese influence, conducting sea trials on its first indigenous aircraft carrier and dispatching a task force for joint exercises with the United States and other allies. The INS Vikrant, which began trials off the southern state of Kerala on Wednesday, will be India's second aircraft carrier in operation.

The Indian Navy said the country can now "join a select group of nations with the capability to indigenously design and build an Aircraft Carrier, which will be a real testimony to the 'Make in India' thrust of the Indian Government." The new 262-metre (860-foot) carrier joins the INS Vikramaditya, the Soviet-made Admiral Gorshkov that India bought in 2004.

The navy said 44 other ships and submarines were being built indigenously. It is also pressing the government for a third carrier, with Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh saying the force could not remain "tethered". China, vying for influence in the Indian Ocean where New Delhi has traditionally held sway, is currently building its third aircraft carrier.

The Indian Navy said separately on Monday that it was sending a task force of four ships to South East Asia, the South China Sea and Western Pacific for two months of exercises including with Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Australia and the United States. The deployment "seeks to underscore the operational reach, peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and countries of the Indo Pacific," it said.

India, Japan, Australia and the US together form the "Quad" alliance seen as a bulwark against China. Last year, 20 Indian troops died in a clash on their disputed Himalayan border with China. This year, India has also conducted naval exercises with France and most recently with a British task force in the Bay of Bengal last month led by the new HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier.

Meanwhile, Mauritius has denied a report that it has allowed India to build a military base on the remote island of Agalega, with a government official telling AFP that no such agreement exists between the two nations. Earlier this week, news broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on the construction of an airstrip and two jetties to house an Indian military base on Agalega, located about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north of the archipelago's main island.

But on Wednesday, the Mauritian government denied any plans to allow a military installation on Agalega, home to about 300 people. "There is no agreement between Mauritius and India for the creation of a military base in Agalega," Ken Arian, a communications adviser to Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, told AFP. Arian said that although work was under way on two projects agreed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2015 visit to Mauritius-a three-kilometer (1.8-mile) air strip and a jetty-they would not be used for military purposes.

The report raised fears of a repeat of the 1965 decision by Britain to separate the Chagos Islands from Mauritius and set up a joint military base with the United States on Diego Garcia, the largest of the isles. The decades-old move has sparked protests by Chagossians, who accuse Britain of carrying out an "illegal occupation" and barring them from their homeland. Britain insists the islands belong to London and has renewed a lease agreement with the United States to use Diego Garcia until 2036. Diego Garcia played a strategic role during the Cold War, and then as an airbase, including during the war in Afghanistan. - AFP