Malabar Naval Exercise

It is a multilateral naval exercise that includes simulated war games and combat manoeuvres. It started in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and US navies. Japan joined in 2015.

Phase 1 of the Malabar Naval Exercise recently kicked off off the coast near Visakhapatnam, with participation of Australian navy for the first time since 2007.
Last year it was held in early September off the coast of Japan.

For the first time in over a decade, the exercise will see the participation of all four Quad countries (Japan, India, Australia and the United States).
This will be the second time Australia will participate. In 2007, there were two Malabar Exercises. The first was held off Okinawa island of Japan in the Western Pacific and the second in September 2007, off Visakhapatnam, with the Indian, Japanese, US, Australian and Singapore navies.
The following year, Australia stopped participating. Japan became a regular participant only in 2015, making it a trilateral annual exercise since then.

As the standoff in eastern Ladakh continues, the participation of four large navies from the Indo-Pacific region will send a message to China.
The Quad arrangement is expected to contribute to being a key instrument of deterrence against China.
Quad has the potential to ensure that in the Indian Ocean Region and all other oceans around there is complete freedom of navigation, without fear of any other nation singularly trying to dominate the oceans.

Over the last few months, the Indian Navy has conducted a number of Passage Exercises (PASSEX) with navies from Japan, Australia and the US. But those were basic exercises to increase operability between the navies, while Malabar involves simulated war games.

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