It is the first time that all the ‘Quad’ countries, an informal security forum that includes India, the United States, Japan and Australia, will be part of Malabar, a move likely to provoke Chinese outcry.
Here is everything you need to know:
What is the Malabal drill?
The Malabar naval exercise began in 1992 as a training event between the United States and India. Japan joined him in 2015, but Australia has not participated since 2007.
The exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.
This year’s drills are likely to take place in the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf, the Defense Ministry said. Dates have not yet been confirmed.
Importance of exercise
It will be the first time that the United States, India, Japan and Australia, the informal group known as the Quad, have participated in a joint military exercise of this size.
The decision to include Australia in the drills, the first time that all members of the regional grouping known as the Quad will participate at the military level, comes as Beijing and New Delhi are caught in their worst border tensions in four decades.
“The timing when India could allow Australia to enter Malabar would be especially significant at this juncture,” said Derek Grossman, a researcher at the Washington-based RAND Corporation, who worked in the US intelligence community for more than a decade. .
“It would send a significant message to China that the Quad – the United States, Australia, Japan and India – are de facto conducting joint naval exercises, even if they are not technically conducted under the auspices of a Quad event,” he added.
The so-called “quad” has been touted as a means of countering Chinese influence, including a huge, decades-long investment in modernizing the People’s Liberation Army-Navy.
But the group has often failed amid disagreements on how much to confront, contain or involve Beijing.
A renewed push to develop the “quad” into a formal counterweight to China has included talks between foreign ministers in Tokyo earlier this month.
With Washington indicating its willingness to support the region through a greater deployment of forces in Asia, the Malabar exercises may take on more importance.
However, China has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development.
China takes note
China said on Tuesday it has “taken note” of India’s announcement that Australia will join the annual Malabar naval exercises alongside the United States and Japan, stressing that military cooperation should be “conducive” to peace and stability. regional.
Commenting on the announcement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a press conference here that China has “taken note of this fact.”
“We always believe that military cooperation between countries should lead to regional peace and stability,” he said in a short reaction.
China concerns
China has been uncomfortable with the informal coalition of four democracies, which was first formed in 2004.
China had strongly opposed the Malabar exercise between India and the United States in the Bay of Bengal in 2007, when it was expanded to also include Japan, Australia and Singapore, firmly believing that multilateral shipbuilding was emerging to “counter it and contain it “. in the region.
China had opposed the inclusion of Japan in the annual Malabar event between the United States and India in 2015 and then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei warned “relevant countries” not to “provoke confrontation and create tension.” in the region.
This had led India to restrict Malabar to a bilateral one with the US for several years (Japan was included only when the exercise took place in the Northwest Pacific in 2009 and 2014) before finally agreeing that Japan be a participant. regular from 2015.
India has traditionally been against any Quad militarization to avoid unnecessarily antagonizing a thorny China.
With the inclusion of Australia, it will be a break from self-imposed restraint. India, of course, is bilaterally expanding its military ties with Australia.
Beijing’s claim on the South China Sea
Beijing claims nearly the entire 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region that, in parts, is claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has prevented commercial activity such as fishing and mineral exploration by neighboring nations in recent years, saying that ownership of the resource-rich maritime territory belongs to China for hundreds of years.
Inclusion of Australia
India’s inclusion of Australia this year follows an advocacy agreement and improved ties towards a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The Mutual Logistics support agreement announced in May by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison allows access to each other’s bases and ports.
India has a similar agreement with the United States.
In a joint statement with Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the announcement was another important step in deepening Australia’s relationship with India.
Australia’s diplomatic relations with China also worsened this year, after Canberra spearheaded calls for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing imposed trade sanctions on Australian beef and barley.
Australia last participated in the Malabar exercise in 2007.
Which boats will participate in the drill?
India, which sent two smaller warships last year, would likely send a larger carrier this time since these are smaller distances.
The United States already has supercarriers Nimitz in the Gulf and Ronald Reagan in the Bay of Bengal, both potential participants in the drill.
Japan’s navy is likely to send one of its two ‘Izumo-class’ helicopter carriers, said Sharma, the largest in its fleet and which has been part of the exercise for several years.
Australia could send one of its newest ships, such as the Hobart destroyer, he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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