Skip to main content

Australia to join 'Exercise Malabar 2020' with India, US and Japan - US Navy Tweet 'Seapower X 4' goes viral

Amid the ongoing stand-off with China in eastern Ladakh, the Ministry of Defence on Monday announced that Australia would join the Malabar 2020 naval exercise, consisting of India, Japan and the U.S., to be held next month, more than three years after Australia first requested to join.

Indian Navy tours USS Princeton (CG 59) during Ex - Malabar 2017 | Representative Image - Wikimedia Commons

“As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defence cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The exercise is scheduled to be held end November and the planning conference to finalise the modalities of the exercise is scheduled to be held virtually end of October, according to an official source.

This will formally bring together the militaries of the four countries in the Quad group and Exercise Malabar could officially be described as a Quadrilateral Naval Exercise (instead of Trilateral).

Australia reaction

In Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that following an invitation from India, Australia would participate in Exercise Malabar 2020. “It will bolster the ability of India, Australia, Japan and the United States to work together to uphold peace and stability across our region,” she said.

Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said, “High-end military exercises like Malabar are key to enhancing Australia’s maritime capabilities, building interoperability with our close partners, and demonstrating our collective resolve to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific”. It showcased the “deep trust” between four major Indo-Pacific democracies and their “shared will” to work together on common security interests, she noted.

In 2018, the exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea, off the coast the Japan in 2019 and was expected to be held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea this year. This year, the exercise had been planned on a ‘non-contact - at sea’ format, the statement said.

The participants of Exercise Malabar 2020 were engaging to enhance safety and security in the maritime domain, the Ministry said. “They collectively support free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and remain committed to a rules based international order.”

In August, a key meeting in the Defence Ministry discussed the issue of inviting Australia and an understanding was reached but no final decision was taken.

US Reaction

Welcoming the decision on Twitter, the handle for the US Navy’s Chief of Information tweeted “Seapower x 4” with the flags of India, the US, Japan and Australia.

The tweet, which comes amid the most serious standoff between India and China in Ladakh, was seen as an endorsement from the United States of India’s decision to invite Australia to the naval exercise.

The US Navy’s tweet has gone viral on social media.

Taking cue from the Navy Chief of Information, the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, part of the US’ Indo-Pacific Command, also tweeted on the new development.

India’s move, experts say, is aimed at strengthening the partnership with the Quad countries to balance China’s aggressive rise.

The Quad countries had met earlier this month in Japan to discuss, among other things, ways to deal with an increasingly aggressive China. Beijing has been at odds with the four countries over multiple issues.

Ahead of the exercise, India and the US will hold the 2+2 dialogue between the defence and foreign ministers/secretaries of the two countries.

Quad meet in Tokyo

The issue of Australia’s inclusion in Malabar had come up for discussion at the Quad foreign ministers meet in Tokyo early this month.

After years of reluctance due to Beijing’s sensitivities, India said it was open to Australia’s inclusion in Malabar, which began as a bilateral exercise between India and the U.S. in 1992 and was expanded into a trilateral format with the inclusion of Japan in 2015.

Canberra joined the exercise once in 2007 and it drew a sharp response from Beijing. In 2017, Australia requested for observer status in the exercise. While New Delhi was reluctant to accept Canberra’s request, the bilateral cooperation has gone up significantly since.

The exercise too has grown in scope and complexity over the years further boosted by India signing three of the four foundational agreements with the U.S. and increasing defence procurements from the U.S., enabling interoperability. Japan and the U.S. have been pressing India for Australia’s inclusion in Malabar.

With India and Japan signing a military logistics agreement in September, New Delhi now has such agreements with the other Quad nations. India had signed maritime information sharing agreements for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) with Australia and Japan and a similar agreement is under discussion with the U.S.

About Malabar Exercise

  • Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, Japan and India as permanent partners. 
  • Originally begun in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States, Japan became a permanent partner in 2015.
  • Past non-permanent participants are Australia and Singapore. 
  • The annual Malabar series began in 1992 and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.
  • The first naval exercise, named Malabar-I, between India and the United States was held in May 1992. 
  • 3 exercises were conducted before 1998, when the Americans suspended exercises after India tested nuclear weapons. However, the United States renewed military contacts following the September 11 attacks when India joined President George W Bush's campaign against international terrorism.

    Ex - Malabar 2019 

  • At the Japan-India Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue held at Tokyo on 2 September 2019, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya announced that Malabar 2019 would be held off the coast of Japan from 26 September to 4 October 2019.
  • The Indian Navy was represented by stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, AsW corvette INS Kiltan and a Boeing P-8I Neptune aircraft. The Indian Navy contingent was led by Rear Admiral Suraj Berry, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet.
  • The U.S. Navy was represented by USS McCampbell and a Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft. The JMSDF was represented by helicopter destroyer JS Kaga, guided missile destroyers JS Samidare and JS Choukai, and a P1 aircraft.


Source



Labels:
Location: Cavalier Tower #56-04, 1st floor, Gubbi Cross, Opp Decathlon, DR Bendre Layout, Kothanur, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560077, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explained: What is Army Aviation Corps, the youngest Corps of the Indian Army

A look at the Army Aviation Corps’ history and its relevance in modern day battlefields, including in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism (CI-CT) operations. Representative Image The Army Aviation Corps (AAC), the youngest Corps of the Indian Army, celebrated its 35th Corps Day on November 1. We take a look at the arm that adds an air dimension to the Army’s capabilities, its history, and its relevance in modern day battlefields, including Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism (CI-CT) operations. The roots of Army Aviation Corps The origin of the AAC can be traced back to the raising of the Army Aviation wing of the Royal Air Force in India in 1942, and the subsequent formation of the first Indian Air Observation Post in August 1947. The Air Observation Post units primarily acted as artillery spotters – which are the elements that help the artillery in directing the fire and also giving air support to ground forces. In the wars of 1965 and 1971, the Air Observation Post helicop...
Post a Comment
Read more

Top 10 Best Sainik Schools In India as per NDA Selection

In this article you will get to know about Best Sainik Schools in India, Best Sainik School of India and top 10 Sainik schools in India When India became independent, most of the officers in the defense at that time used to come from elite families. To rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the India Military, V.K Krishna Menon came up with the idea of Sainik Schools. The idea was to prepare students for Entry in the NDA. In Sainik Schools, deserving students can get high-quality education irrespective of their income or class background. The mission of Sainik schools is to prepare the cadets academically, physically, and mentally to enter the portals of the NDA. Today there are 33 Sainik schools running and proposed for future covering all the states of the country. But it has always been a topic of discussion that which of these is the best Sainik School school in India. Why do children take admission in Sainik Schools?  So that they can become offi...
Post a Comment
Read more

That time when India took half of Pakistan to make it pay for a motorcycle

In 1947, British officer Yahya Khan offered his colleague 1,000 rupees for his spiffy red motorcycle. His colleague, Sam Manekshaw, agreed. But before Khan could pay, he was off to what was going to become Pakistan. The British split its Indian colony, and things on the subcontinent have been pretty tense ever since. To top it all off, Yahya Khan didn't pay for the motorbike. But he would, even if it took almost 25 years. The Partition of India was much more than the splitting of the British Raj into two independent states. It was a catastrophic split that tore apart the country and created millions of refugees, cost millions of lives, and split the armed forces of the country in two, all based on religion. Violence erupted almost immediately between the two groups on such a large scale that much of it has never been forgotten or forgiven. Animosity continued between both sides for decades, and the two have fought war after war because of the myriad issues left unaddressed. By 1970...
Post a Comment
Read more