Malabar Naval Exercise 2020The first phase of the Malabar Naval Exercise, which began on 3 November in the Bay of Bengal, ended on 6 November. Navies of India, the United States, Australia and Japan participated in the annual exercise.
The Indian Navy has released a video of the exercise.
Australia participated in the exercise for the first time in over a decade.
This is significant because Australia’s participation has effectively made the Malabar exercise the wargame of the Quad nations. Earlier, it was a trilateral naval exercise in which only India, the US and Japan participated.
Coming amid India’s tensions with China in eastern Ladakh, the exercise is being seen as a signal to Beijing from the Quad countries.
The exercise, which is aimed at improving coordination between the navies of the Quad countries, comes at a time when China’s presence in the Indian Ocean is increasing. Over the last few years, China has not only deployed surface warships and conventional submarines in the Indian Ocean but also nuclear submarines.
China, experts say, has made its hegemonic intentions in the Indian Ocean Region clear with the development of a large military base in Djibouti and acquisition of ports in Sir Lanka (Hambantota) and (Gwadar) nd Pakistan on lease.
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