The decision to include Australia in the drills, the first time that all members of the regional grouping known as Yard will engage at the military level: Beijing and New Delhi are caught in their worst border tensions in four decades.
The exercise will bring together the navies of India, Japan, Australia and the United States in the Bay of Bengal by the end of the year.
“As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the field of maritime security and in light of increased defense cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
He said this year’s drill has been planned in a “no contact – at sea” format.
“The exercise will strengthen coordination between the navies of the participating countries,” the ministry said.
He said the Quad nations are pledging to improve maritime security.
“They collectively support the free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific and remain committed to a rules-based international order,” he said amid China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean region.
China had been staunchly opposed to India-US. USA Juggling exercise in the Bay of Bengal in 2007, when it was expanded to also include Japan, Australia and Singapore, firm in its belief that multilateral shipbuilding was emerging to “counter and contain” it 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. Similarly, New Delhi has also made it clear that the United States should not “combine” the Indo-Pacific with the Quad, emphasizing the centrality of Asean in the former.
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.
“The timing when India could allow Australia to enter Malabar would be especially significant at this juncture,” said Derek Grossman, a Washington-based investigator for the 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 (US, 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.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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