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SPO TLIGHT
WHY THE QUAD’S MALABAR DRILL
WHY THE QUAD’S MALABAR DRILL
MAKES CHINA NERV OUS?
MAKES CHINA NERVOUS?
BY JAY MANIYAR*
Introduction to the QUAD indispensable to the QUAD owing to an ineradicable
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), congruence with emerging security interests in
as the name suggests, is a security-focussed forum the greater Asian regions. Recently, the QUAD
organised between two premier Asian nations in seemingly gained military materialisation with a
Japan and India, and two outlying global powers landmark edition of the MALABAR exercises for
in Australia and the United States of America 2020 (originally conceived between India and the
(USA). Geographically, the USA and Australia are United States) having now subsumed the remaining
‘peripheral’ yet inclusive Asian nation-states that two QUAD members in Japan (since 2015) and
profess to a wide-ranging set of regional security Australia (for the first time in a decade). There is,
interests leading to a comprehensive and concerted however, no official attribution to the MALABAR
involvement in Asian security aff airs. being ‘the QUAD’s exercises’ by any of the four
The QSD is the QUAD, with the moniker also participating navies.
being the name by which it is popularly known The MALABAR exercises were first held in
ubiquitously. It was founded in 2007 at the behest May 1992 between the navies of the two most
of Japan under the prime ministerial reign of powerful democracies in the world, India and the
the now-retired Shinzo Abe. The organisation US, in a purely bilateral form. The MALABAR
remained dormant for over a decade before focusses on fostering better ties between the navies
resuming operations in recent years. Despite of its member countries through large-scale naval
its history, the QUAD retains a nascency in its exercises. The critical maritime undertaking,
geopolitical presence, activities, and infl uence. with Australia’s recent re-inclusion, has gained a
The QUAD’s highest-level engagements include remarkable stature that is beginning to diff erentiate
foreign ministerial-level meetings, the most recent its standing vis-à-vis other cooperative naval
of which was held in Tokyo in early October undertakings such as the KONKAN (India-UK)
2020. Foreign ministerial level meetings were an and the JIMEX (India-Japan) exercises.
elevation to the continued formalisation of the The first phase of the new MALABAR was
QUAD and took place for the first time last month. completed in the Bay of Bengal on 06th November
Japan’s three partner-countries in the QUAD after having lasted for four days. The Bay of
assumed the mantle of eventually becoming Bengal is an area of strategic maritime interest
56 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 8 • Issue 9 • November 2020, Noida
