Two Indian Navy frontline warships—Sahyadri and Kolkata—are berthed off Australia’s eastern coast, all primed up to take part in the ten-day-long Exercise Malabar 2023 that will take off on Friday at and off Sydney for the harbour and the sea phase respectively.
Among other things, the fact that both the warships in the Western Pacific are indigenous is a statement on India’s ‘atmanirbharta’ or self-reliance effort.
This is the first time that Australia is hosting the exercise.
Besides the two Indian ships, ships and aircraft from the US Navy (USN), Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) will also take part in the strategically important exercise.
The harbour phase will include cross-deck visits, professional exchanges, sports fixtures, and other interactions while the sea phase will comprise “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.”
Other gains from the exercise will be interoperability and inculcating the best practices in maritime security operations.
Both ships have been built at Mumbai’s Mazagon Dock Ltd. While the INS Sahyadri is a multi-role stealth frigate, the INS Kolkata is a destroyer. Both are fitted with a state-of-the-art array of weapons and sensors to detect and neutralise threats in surface, air and underwater domains.
Ex Malabar began in 1992 as a bilateral India-US naval exercise. While Australia joined the exercise as a non-permanent member in 2007, it had to opt out in 2008 following China’s vehement opposition. With Japan joining in 2015, the naval articulation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or ‘Quad’ became complete.
India, the US, Japan and Australia are members of the ‘Quad’ which is commonly understood to be a grouping based on an anti-China platform—one that has resulted in a lot of umbrage from China.
The ‘Quad’ states that it is committed to a free, open, inclusive Indo-Pacific as well as a rules-based international order—euphemisms that China thinks are directed against it. China has called the ‘Quad’ a ‘mini-NATO’.
India already has regular bilateral naval exercises with the US, Australia and Japan.
But India also undertakes the strategic risk of being drawn into the ongoing crisis over Taiwan despite its disinclination as it doesn’t have too much of a stake, especially at a time when there is already an ongoing standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.
