• The Malabar exercise featuring the navies of all four Quad countries — India, the US, Australia and Japan — is being held off the coast of Sydney from August 11 to 21.

• Indian Navy’s INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata are participating in the high-voltage exercise. 

• INS Sahyadri is the third ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-17 class multi-role stealth frigates. INS Kolkata is the first ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-15A class destroyers. 

• Both ships have been built at Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai and are fitted with state-of-the-art array of weapons and sensors to detect and neutralise threats in surface, air and underwater domains.

History of Malabar exercise:

• Malabar is an annual maritime exercise that enhances planning, training and employment of advanced warfare tactics between the Indian Navy (IN), US Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and  Royal Australian Navy (RAN) which demonstrates the commitment between like-minded nations to upholding a rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific.  

• The Malabar Exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. Japan became a permanent member of the exercise in 2015. 

• This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.

• Following India’s invitation, Australia participated in the Malabar Exercise in 2020 that effectively made it a drill by all four member nations of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition. Australia participated in subsequent exercises as well.

• In 2020, the exercise was hosted in two phases in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, while in 2021, the mega wargame took place off the coast of Guam in the Western Pacific.

• Last year, it was hosted by Japan off Yokosuka island near the East China Sea.

• This year marks the 27th edition of the Malabar exercise.

• The annual wargame will include both sea and harbour phases with the focus expected to be on expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

• The harbour phase involves wide-ranging activities such as cross-deck visits, professional exchanges and interactions.

• The sea phase will include various complex and high intensity exercises in all three domains of warfare, encompassing anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine exercises including live weapon firing drills.

What is Quad?

• The Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal grouping of four countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States. 

• It is a diplomatic partnership of four countries committed to promoting stability, resilience and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. 

• Established in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to coordinate humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the Quad has since become a leading regional partnership dedicated to advancing a common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific through practical cooperation on diverse 21st-century challenges. 

• The foreign ministers of the four countries held their first meeting under the Quad framework in New York in September 2019.

• The first Leaders’ Summit of the Quad was held virtually in March 2021.

• The Quad recognises that international law, peace, and security in the maritime domain underpins the development and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. 

• The countries are determined to deepen engagement with regional partners, including through capacity-building and technical assistance, to strengthen maritime domain awareness, protect their ability to develop offshore resources, consistent with  the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

• The Quad is exchanging information on ever-evolving threats and working with Indo-Pacific countries, and in multilateral fora, to counter all forms of terrorism and violent extremism.

• The partners champion the free, open, and inclusive rules-based order, rooted in international law, that protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of regional countries.

• The Quad has been focusing on cooperation in areas such as producing vaccines, connectivity projects, facilitating the mobility of students and looking at promoting startups and technology collaboration.

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