Indian Navy To Take Part In 'Malabar Exercises' Beginning From 11 August, Amidst Ongoing Standoff With China

The much anticipated Malabar exercises will be held from 11 to 22 August off the coast of Sydney. The exercise will see participation from Indian, US, Japanese and Australian Navies.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the Indian Navy will send a top-of-the-line destroyer, a submarine and a P-8I Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) aircraft to the exercise, amid the increasing aggressive attitude of the Chinese PLA and the continuing border standoff with Indian Army along the Line-of Actual Control (LAC).

The Indian and Chinese soldiers are in the 4th year of their border standoff along the entire LAC, that started after the May 2020 brutal clash at the Galwan Valley which left 20 Indian and unknown number of Chinese soldiers dead.

Since then, clashes have occured at various points along the LAC, the most recent of which occured on December 2022 at Yangtse in Tawang, in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Malabar Exercise will have both, a sea and a harbor phase.

With a series of dynamic drills and simulated scenarios, the naval forces will undertake a wide range of activities, including anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, air defense, and amphibious operations.

The Malabar exercise aims to deepen ties between the QUAD navies, ie, India, the US, Japan, and Australia, as they face belligerence from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Chinese are increasingly becoming aggressive against countries such as India, Taiwan and coastal nations in the South China Sea (SCS).

Just a week ago, while the ASEAN nations navies were conducting an exercise with the Indian Navy in the SCS as part of the inaugural edition of the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercises (AIME-2023), the Chinese, in an attempt to intimidate, the ASEAN countries, sent eight militia vessels in the direction the exercises were taking place. 

The Indian Navy subsequently provided clarification, stating that the movements of the Chinese militia vessels were closely monitored as they began to approach the designated exercise area.

Malabar series of maritime exercises commenced in 1992 with India and US as a part of it. In 2015, Japanese Navy joined Malabar as a permanent member. The 2020 edition witnessed participation of the Royal Australian Navy.

This announcement of the date of the exercises comes a day after the cancellation of the 'QUAD Leader Summit' initially planned to be held at Sydney.

The cancellation was prompted by the decision of US President Joe Biden to withdraw from the summit due to difficulties in negotiating his country's debt ceiling.

Instead, the Quad leaders will now meet on the sidelines of G7 summit in Japan's Hiroshima.