Updated: October 20, 2020 8:43:41 am
On Monday, India announced that Australia will be part of Exercise Malabar in November, making it the first military exercise among all the countries that make up the Quadrilateral group, better known as Quad.
Amid the Sino-Indian military showdown along the Royal Line of Control in Ladakh and rising tensions in the South China Sea, the quadrilateral group of the US, Japan, India and Australia will send their warships to the Malabar Exercise next month.
New Delhi and Washington are also stepping up their efforts to conclude the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) ahead of the Indo-US ministerial meeting. 2 + 2 from October 26 to 27: the defense and foreign ministers of the two countries will meet at 2 + 2.
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A key military pact, BECA will enable India to utilize US geospatial intelligence and improve the accuracy of automated systems and weapons such as missiles and armed drones. In February, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the early termination of BECA.
The troika of pacts
Geospatial details shared under the SCHOLARSHIP will help improve the accuracy of Indian missiles and will be key to plans for armed drones. It will complete the troika of founding pacts, with COMCASA and LEMOA the other two, with the US for greater military cooperation.
On Monday, India announced that Australia will be part of Exercise Malabar in November, making it the first military exercise among all the countries that make up the Quadrilateral group, better known as Quad.
Since 2017, the year Quad was revived, Malabar had been a trilateral exercise involving the navies of the US, India and Japan. Includes simulated war games and combat maneuvers. Last year, it was carried out in September off the coast of Japan and included complex maritime operations in the surface, subsurface and air domains, with a focus on anti-submarine warfare, anti-aircraft and anti-surface firing, maritime interdiction operations (MIO ) including Visiting Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and scenario-based tactical exercises at sea.
The acceleration of work at BECA and the decision of the four Quad countries to participate in Exercise Malabar are seen as a strategic signal for an aggressive China that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar described last week as a “challenge critical to security “at the border. Indian and Chinese troops have been in a military clash along the Ladakh border since early May.
US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T Esper are expected to come to India for Indo-American 2 + 2 Ministerial Meeting with Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh from 26-27 October.
The sources said that since February, when Trump visited India and the joint statement underscored the “early conclusion” of BECA, negotiators from the two sides have been working to finalize the pact.
This is one of the last founding agreements and refers largely to geospatial intelligence, which shares information on maps and satellite images for defense purposes. The United States had submitted a draft compact and India had requested more details on the scope of information that needed to be shared under this agreement. “It’s about putting points on i’s and crossing t’s now,” a source told The Indian Express on Monday.
Even if BECA is not signed, the two parties are likely to announce the conclusion of the deal during the visit, the source said.
In September 2018, after the first 2 + 2 dialogue between the two countries, then-Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with their visiting counterparts, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, the two sides had signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that paved the way for the transfer of communications security equipment from the US to India to facilitate “interoperability” between your forces and potentially with other armies using US-sourced systems for secure data links.
Previously, in August 2016, India and the US signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), which allows the military of each country to resupply from the bases of the other.
These pacts fit well with Exercise Malabar, as India has signed versions of LEMOA with all the Quad countries.
Confirming Exercise Malabar, a statement from the Defense Ministry said on Monday: “As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the domain of maritime security and in light of increased defense cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy. “
“This year, the exercise has been planned in a ‘contactless at sea’ format. The exercise will strengthen coordination between the navies of the participating countries, ”the statement said.
“The participants of Exercise Malabar 2020 are committing to improve safety in the maritime field. They collectively support the free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and remain committed to a rules-based international order, ”the statement said.
In response to this announcement, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said: “Following an invitation from India, Australia will participate in Exercise Malabar 2020.”
“The exercise will bring together four key regional defense partners: India, the United States, Japan and Australia in November 2020,” he said.
Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said the Malabar exercise marks a historic opportunity for the Australian Defense Forces.
“High-level military exercises like Malabar are key to enhancing Australia’s maritime capabilities, developing interoperability with our close partners, and demonstrating our collective determination to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Reynolds said.
“The Malabar exercise also shows the deep trust between the four major Indo-Pacific democracies and their shared willingness to work together in common security interests.”
Payne also said the announcement was another important step in deepening Australia’s relationship with India. “It will strengthen the ability of India, Australia, Japan and the United States to work together to defend peace and stability in our region,” he said.
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