A fleet of U.S., Japanese and Indian warships will hold a large-scale joint naval exercise over eight days in the Western Pacific, close to a Japanese island chain, part of which China claims. As China pushes its territorial claims in the neighbouring South China Sea, Tokyo and Washington worry it will look to extend its influence into the Western Pacific, with a growing fleet of submarines and surface vessels to ply distant oceans.

The drill, dubbed Malabar, is an annual event between the U.S. and India, and Japan is joining it this year for the first time since 2007, Japan’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Among the Japanese warships, which will practice submarine hunting and anti-aircraft defence, will be the Hyuga, one of the country’s three new helicopter carriers. Last year, the drill was held in the Bay of Bengal near India.

Lying around 220 km (137 miles) west of Taiwan are a group of uninhabited isles, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, which are controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States.