Eyeing China, India says Australia to join Malabar naval drill

TIL Desk/World/New Delhi/ In a significant move that comes amid a Sino-India border row, India on Monday announced Australia’s participation in the upcoming Malabar exercise along with the United States and Japan, effectively making it the first military-level engagement between the four member nations grouping –the Quad.

The invitation by India to the Australian Navy for the exercise next month came two weeks after the foreign ministers of the Quad held extensive talks in Tokyo with a focus on enhancing their cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a region that has been witnessing increasing Chinese military assertiveness.

‘As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defence cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy,’ the defence ministry said in a statement.