About the exercise

• Malabar began as a bilateral naval exercise between India and the U.S. in 1992, and was expanded into a trilateral format with the inclusion of Japan in 2015.
• Australia has been requesting for observer status in the Malabar exercise.
• However, India did not include Australia in the exercises in 2018 and 2019, while the bilateral AUSINDEX naval exercise expanded in scope and complexity.

Why in News?

• Recently, a key meeting of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) discussed the issue of inviting Australia for the trilateral Malabar naval exercise with Japan and the United States. However, a final decision has not been taken yet.
• The decision, if taken, could bring all Quad countries together as part of the annual war games.
• The inclusion of Australia in the Malabar exercises would mark a major shift for India’s Indo-Pacific plans. The bilateral cooperation has gone up significantly over the years.
• Last month, the two countries signed the long-pending Mutual Logistics Support (MLSA), elevated their partnership to Comprehensive Strategic partnership and also announced a joint declaration on a shared vision for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

Quad grouping

• The grouping of four democracies– India, Australia, US and Japan –known as the quadrilateral security dialogue or quad, was first mooted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. Quad was revived in 2017.
• Quad is projected as four democracies with a shared objective to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.
• With growing concerns in all four quad countries about Chinese foreign policy and regional influence, the group has found renewed relevance.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/government-mulls-australias-entry-into-malabar-naval-exercise/article32124106.ece