Malabar exercise

Subject – Defence and Security

Context – Malabar exercise phase-II to be held next week

Concept –

This is the first military engagement among the Quad partner countries since Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. unveiled the AUKUS initiative to deepen cooperation on a range of “emerging security and defence capabilities” which includes equipping Australian with at least eight nuclear powered submarines (SSN).
The exercise will be held over three days, beginning October 12, in the Bay of Bengal.
Phase-I of Malabar, also its 25th edition, was hosted by the U.S. and held off Guam from August 26-29.
The Malabar exercise commenced in 1992 as an India-U.S. exercise. In 2015, Japan joined as a permanent member, and Australia was included in the 2020 edition.