Australia will participate in the Malabar naval exercise, involving the United States, Japan and India, to bring the four key partners in the Indo-Pacific region together next month, according to a statement issued by the Australian government.
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 US and Japan, effectively making it the first military-level engagement between the four-member nation 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.
