India wants Australia in Malabar naval drill, risking China's wrath

NEW DELHI • India plans to invite Australia to join the annual Malabar naval exercise that has so far included just Japan and the United States, in a move that could risk China's ire.

The decision to include Australia in the drills - the first time all members of the regional grouping known as the Quad will be engaged at a military level - comes as Beijing and New Delhi are caught up in their worst border tensions in four decades.

The exercise will bring together the navies of India, Japan, Australia and the US in the Bay of Bengal at the end of the year, according to senior Indian officials who asked not to be identified.

New Delhi is expected to clear the way next week for a formal invitation to Australia, they said.

"The timing of India potentially letting Australia into Malabar would be especially significant at this juncture," said researcher Derek Grossman at Rand Corporation who worked in the US intelligence community for more than a decade.

"It would send a significant message to China that the Quad - the US, Australia, Japan and India - are defacto conducting joint naval exercises, even if not technically conducted under the auspices of a Quad event."

China has been uncomfortable with the informal coalition of four democracies, which was first formed in 2004 to help nations in the Indo-Pacific after the Indian Ocean tsunami and revived in 2017. After the coronavirus pandemic was declared this year, the grouping has been coordinating efforts every month with Vietnam, South Korea and New Zealand.

A spokesman for Australia's defence department said yesterday: "Australia sees value in participating in quadrilateral defence activities in order to increase interoperability and advance our collective interests in a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region."

While the Malabar exercises between the US and Indian navies were instituted in 1992, they have been more regular since 2004, with other Asian nations joining in the annual event.

China had objected to the only other time Australia participated in the drills along with India, Japan, the US and Singapore in 2007.

India's inclusion of Australia this year follows a defence agreement and upgrading ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The Mutual Logistics support agreement allows access to each other's bases and ports. India has a similar pact with the US.

Canberra's inclusion was "only a matter of time", given improving defence and economic ties, said Mr Biren Nanda, former Indian High Commissioner to Australia and a senior fellow at Delhi Policy Group.

Australia's merchandise trade with India for the year ended June last year was A$21.1 billion (S$20.4 billion), according to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"There's no direct relation between inviting Australia and what's happening at the Sino-Indian border," said Mr Nanda. "This was a natural progression. Yet the question will be raised: how would the Chinese regard this? And they will react negatively. Just like they had done earlier."

China objected to Japan's inclusion in the US-India annual Malabar event in 2015, with its then Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei warning "relevant countries" to not "provoke confrontation and create tension" in the region.

With the US indicating its willingness to back the region through an increased force deployment in Asia, the Malabar exercises may take on more importance.

"The Quad has always been a security platform but didn't have a military context to it," said Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagoplan, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and author of Clashing Titans: Military Strategy And Insecurity Among Asian Great Powers.

"The Malabar exercises may give it just that, thanks to China upping its ante and threatening the region's security."

BLOOMBERG