"Navies exercise. I did an awful lot of that myself," Kirby said when asked during a daily press briefing about potential concerns. "Exercising naval capabilities is to be expected. I don’t think we view exercises like this as an impediment to our ability to defend freedom of the seas and to support our alliances and partnerships around the world."

Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan told Sputnik earlier that multilateral drills will be held in the Indian Ocean in the middle of February.

The navies plan to practice search and rescue operations and measures to ensure safe navigation.

Russia, Iran and China held their Marine Security Belt naval drills in late December 2019.