MALABAR-2015 - emerging collective defence in the Indo-Pacific

摘要

The strategically significant Joint India-US Naval exercise MALABAR-2015, hosted by India between 14 and 21 October 2015 has just concluded. The entire exercise was conducted in the Bay of Bengal. This exercise, in many ways, illustrates the growing multi-faceted military cooperation between India and the USA and underpins their collective effort to define the strategic contours of the Indo-Pacific security. The MALABAR exercise was noteworthy on 2015 for the trilateral nature it has acquired with Japanese participation. This signifies a major shift in India's approach in relation to the evolving contemporary security calculus of the Indo-Pacific region. It may be recalled that Exercise MALABAR was primarily designed as a US-India annual event when it started in 1992 as a joint naval exercise between the navies of the two countries. It was institutionalised under the India-US Defence Framework Agreement signed in June 2005 (India 2015). This has now been extended for a further period of 10 years under an agreement signed by US Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar on 3 June 2015 (Garamone 2015).