The military exercises to be held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are likely to upset China.
Australia will participate in large-scale military exercises off the coast of India next month that will bring together a quartet of countries concerned about growing Chinese influence.
India, Japan, the United States and, for the first time since 2007, Australia will participate in the Malabar naval exercise in November, a move likely to lead to protests from China.
Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said Monday night that the drills were aimed at “demonstrating our collective determination to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” an allusion to China’s struggle against power.
The Indian Defense Ministry said that the naval exercise would take place in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, which has been a key point for Indochinese strategic competition.
Over the past few decades, China has attempted to significantly increase its influence in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, causing great concern in New Delhi.
The drill comes at a time of diplomatic tensions between China and Australia, economic tensions between China and the United States, and military tensions between China and India.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne before the ‘Quad’ meeting of foreign ministers from four Indo-Pacific nations [Charly Triballeau/Pool via AFP]
India and China have sent tens of thousands of troops to a remote Himalayan border area since fighting a pitched battle in June in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed.
The so-called “Quad” has been touted as a means to counter Chinese influence, including a decades-long investment to modernize its military.
But the group has often failed amid disagreements on how much to confront, contain or involve Beijing.
A renewed push to turn the Quad into a formal counterweight to China included talks between foreign ministers in Tokyo earlier this month.
At that meeting, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Asian allies to unite against China’s “exploitation, corruption and coercion” in the region.
