Malabar Exercise

It is the first time after 2007 that Australian navy has joined in the Malabar naval exercise held annually between the navies of India, United States of America (U.S.) and Japan. This will bring all the four members of the Quadrilateral grouping (Quad) on the same platform for the military event. The request of the Australian government was recently approved by the Government of India to participate in the Malabar naval exercise. The Malabar exercise will happen in two phases, first phase will be held in Bay of Bengal and another in Arabian Sea.

Key facts about Malabar Exercise

• This annual naval exercise was started between India and U.S. in 1992 as a bilateral exercise.
• In 2015, Japan has joined and became the permanent member, after that it was known as trilateral exercise.
• In 2020, Indian government accepted the request of the Australian government and hence from now onwards the exercise will be known as quadrilateral exercise.
• This is very crucial event because of all the four members of the Quadrilateral grouping together for a military event.

What is Quadrilateral grouping?

Quad is the Quadrilateral Security dialogue between four members that include India, Australia, US and Japan. The grouping was originated as a dialogue the Prime Minister of Japan (Shinzo Abe) in 2007. This informal strategic grouping for the security is maintained by the information exchange, military exercises as well as summits. The inter-governmental security forum was seen as a rival informal organisation against the rising influence of China in terms of military as well as economic powers. The revival of the grouping in 2017 ASEAN summits gave new birth to the security alliance.