Malabar Exercise: Checking the Chinese ambitions
T
he 24th edition of the two-phased Malabar exercises, which ended on Nov. 20, had a special significance as the Australian Navy participated in it for the first time since 2007. Moreover, this was the first time that all the four Quad or Quadrilateral Coalition members came together to show off their naval strength. And indeed it was a real show of strength that must have made some nations with overweening territorial ambitions in the region like China sit down and think. The Quad was conceived at
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an August 2007 meeting in Manila, held on the sidelines of ASEAN Regional Forum, between the prime ministers of India, Japan, and Australia and the vice president of the United States. The following month using the already existing Malabar exercise framework, established when they first began in 1992 between the Indian and US navies, a major naval drill was conducted between the navies of India, US, Japan, and Australia, with Singapore participating as well. China responded angrily and issued formal diplomatic protests.
A nervous Australia quickly backtracked from the Quad and made its intention clear to not participate in future Malabar exercises. Quad 1.0 was in limbo. The US India, and Japan eventually began to exercise trilaterally and Australia was not in the picture until this year There was speculation earlier that the possibility of angering China had prevented India from expanding the Malabar Exercise with Australia joining it. But in recent times, the importance of Australian participation was realised.
This importance was evident in the words of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. On October 27, following the Indo-US 2+2 dialogue, he said: “We agreed that upholding the rulesbased international order, respecting the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the international seas and upholding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states are essential. Our defence cooperation is intended to further these objectives. Both sides welcomed Australia joining the forthcoming
