Quad’s Malabar Drill

Why in the News?

The ten-day Malabar series of naval exercises featuring navies of the QUAD group is set to be conducted from Aug 11-21, 2023.

Quad’s Malabar drill, 2023:

1. Australia’s Royal Australian Navy is set to host the drill for the first time.
2. This year’s naval exercise shall focus on Interoperability- with air, sea and undersea stress in focus.
3. The Australian forces will field two warships – HMAS choules and HMAS Brisbane
4. India will be sending the destroyer INS Kolkata and INS Sahyadri
5. US and Japan will be sending one warship each.
6. India, Japan and the US will send maritime forces consisting of Boeing P8I maritime surveillance aircraft.
7. No submarines or Aircraft carriers to be fielded in the current exercise.

About:

QUAD (Quadrilateral security Dialogue)

1. An informal alliance of countries composed of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan.
2. The grouping began as a coordination mechanism to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
3. The revival of QUAD came in 2017
4. Common goals:
   1. Rules-based international order
   2. Freedom of navigation
   3. Peaceful settlement of territorial disputes.
5. The navies of all four nations participate in the high-profile Malabar exercises
6. bilateral military ties, in the form of exercises and defence agreements, High-level 2+2 dialogues.

Initiatives taken under QUAD

1. Quad Vaccine Partnership
   1. Quad nations leveraged their unique strengths in medical technology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and logistics.
   2. ambitious goal of providing 1 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2022.
   3. safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing for the Indo-Pacific region in close coordination with multilateral mechanisms including WHO and COVAX.
   4. India’s manufacturing capacity, Japan to provide soft loans to expand manufacturing capacity in India, and Australia will give “last-mile” delivery support with a focus on Southeast Asia, along with financial support for the provision of vaccines.
2. Quad Working Group on Climate to promote cooperation on climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, technology, capacity building and climate finance to align domestic, regional and global actions for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
3. Quad’s Critical Technologies Working Group- jointly develop new technologies, design global standards, and construct resilient supply chains.
4. commitment to exploring opportunities for cooperation in counterterrorism.
   1. India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) hosted the first counterterrorism table-top exercise (CT-TTX) for Quad members. In 2019
   2. wider intelligence-sharing network amongst the Quad grouping
5. Supply Chain Resilience Agenda: financing for resilience, attracting technology multinationals, and addressing raw-material dependencies
6. Quad 2.0 Agenda for Critical and Emerging Technologies:

Three broad areas for collaboration:

1) Telecommunications.

2) Principles on technology development, design, and deployment like data governance, cyber norms, and 5G standards.

3) Collaboration between national standards bodies.

India’s interests in the QUAD grouping:

1. For India, its membership in the Quad represents an evolution in strategic thinking that began with its Look East policy in the early 1990s.
2. Indian can effectively counter the rising Chinese hostilities on the borders with the support of the QUAD.
3. The Malabar Naval exercises can be used for strategic exploration and widening skills of interoperability in the Indo-Pacific region.
4. India can act as a net security provider in the region given its strategic location and instil trust among the South east Asian countries in an attempt to widen the reach of its “Act East Policy”.

Way forward:

1. In the absence of a cohesive economic strategy that seeks to build cohesive and secure supply chains, the Quad risks standing on only one leg in a region that cares deeply about economic integration and statecraft
2. Convince deeply Southeast Asia, that it offers partners more than just military power and security