AUSINDEX-17: An Alternative?

With the Malabar Exercises being held only North of the Australian continent, the Australian government is keen to participate and become a permanent member of the annual naval exercise.

The Malabar Exercises were initially an option for Australia; they are a trilateral naval exercise conducted among the United States, India and Japan. The operations are normally held off the Indian and Western Pacific coast. The exercises began in 1992, as a bilateral cooperation between the United States and India. Japan joined as a permanent member in 2015. 

A Bilateral Co-operation

The Australia-India Exercise, commonly known as ‘AUSINDEX’ is a biennial, bilateral maritime exercise between India and Australia and is set to commence from June 13^th to 19^th this year. The first AUSINDEX -15 took place at the Bay of Bengal. This year’s navy drill will take place off the coast of Western Australia.

The bilateral cooperation between Australia and India will help interoperability while also helping them to address common concerns, thereby building trust. Could this be an alternative to the Malabar Exercise?

China’s Concern

The Chinese media had initially expressed displeasure towards the trilateral cooperation especially when Japan joined the Malabar exercises. China views any kind of ‘naval grouping’ as a coalition against it. The Chinese believe that such large scale military exercise is designed to target China’s submarine activities in East and South China Sea and promote US rebalance in Asia-Pacific.

India has 13 conventional submarines while China has more than 4 times that number. In terms of naval strength, China leads with being the 3^rd largest navy in the world. Recently, China has increased its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

Analysis

The maritime exercise is in accordance with India’s ‘Look East Policy’. By conducting the bilateral exercise with Australia, India is able to extend its naval capabilities and reaffirm its Strategic Partnership with Australia.

Earlier this year, India had rejected Australia’s request to join the Malabar exercise, in deference to China’s concern of increasing naval activities in the South China Sea.

Assessment

Since 9/11, major global powers like US, UK and China have spent considerable amount of time and resources in developing new maritime strategies to control the seas. Even countries like Japan and Singapore have recently upgraded their naval equipment. India has also made this a priority by modernizing its naval force and also promoting maritime ties with US, Australia, Japan and Vietnam.

Our assessment is that China is increasingly concerned because the countries involved in maritime co-operation are NATO members (US, Japan and Australia). China is keen on containing the US influence; especially in the Asian-Pacific region given that there is increased NATO activities along the Russian borders.