Malabar drill to be held off Australia for the first time

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The top-notch Malabar naval exercise, which is the most visible manifestation of the expanding military interoperability among the `Quad’ countries in the crucial Indo-Pacific region, will be conducted off Australia for the first time this August.

India will be dispatching frontline warships as well as P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft for the forthcoming 27th edition of the Malabar exercise, which began as a bilateral endeavour between India and US in the 1990s and then formally included Japan as a regular participant in 2015 and finally Australia in 2020 to complete the `Quad’.

Australia, incidentally, has also invited India to participate in its largest biennial `Talisman Sabre’ tri-service exercise with the US and a few other countries that will be conducted from July 21 to August 4.

India and Japan on Friday will kick off an exercise between their armies to hone their warfare skills and boost interoperability, which comes soon after the two countries conducted their first-ever joint air combat drills last month with an eye firmly on China.

All the four `Quad’ countries have openly declared their intent to deter any `coercion’ in the Indo-Pacific in the face of China’s aggressive and expansionist behaviour in the entire region.

“It is natural progression that the Malabar, which was so far conducted either off India or Japan, now heads to Australia. After the Malabar was held off Yokosuka near the East China Sea last year, Australia was keen to host the exercise this time,” a senior official told TOI on Sunday.

“The `Quad’ nations, who have affirmed their commitment for a free, open and rules-based international order across the entire Indo-Pacific, are now equal stakeholders in the Malabar series of exercises,” he added.

With China fast building its Navy, which is already the world’s largest with 355 warships and submarines, it’s felt that a structured maritime partnership among the Quad countries is required to tackle any challenges in the years ahead.

External affairs minister (EAM) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Australian minister for foreign affairs Penny Wong, in Sydney on Saturday. Jaishankar will attend the Raisina@Sydney Dialouge organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

While India’s defence ties with countries like the US and Japan have traditionally been strong, Beijing’s muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific have led New Delhi and Canberra to shed their past inhibitions in strengthening their bilateral military engagement, guarding as they do the two flanks of the Indian Ocean.

Australian PM Anthony Albanese will be visiting India on a four-day bilateral visit next month, and will return for the G-20 summit in September. In-between, PM Narendra Modi will be in Australia for the Quad leaders’ summit.

Australia is keen to further expand defence ties with India by increasing the complexity of bilateral and multilateral exercises, enhancing cooperation in maritime domain awareness and reciprocal military logistics, exchanging classified information and intelligence-sharing, and kicking-off military-industrial collaboration.

Apart from the `AUSINDEX’ series of bilateral naval exercises, India had participated in the major multi-nation `Pitch Black’ air combat exercise at Darwin in Australia last year. The armies from the two countries also conducted their first-ever `Austra-Hind’ infantry combat exercise at the Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan in November-December.

India and Australia also inked a mutual logistics support arrangement (MLSA) in June 2020, which provides for refuelling and berthing facilities for each other’s warships and aircraft. India has such reciprocal military logistics pacts with the US and Japan as well as other countries like France, South Korea and Singapore.
(The Times of India)