Sea-Going Friends

Smruti D

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or the Quad is an informal strategic forum, which includes the US, India, Japan and Australia. This forum is seen as an anti-China grouping, however, the larger interest of the Quad remains a ‘free, open and prosperous’ Indo-Pacific region. These countries are trying to promote the Freedom of Navigation (FoN) and Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) as formulated by the United Nation Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in the Indo-Pacific, hinting at China’s belligerent motives and actions.

                                                         Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz alongside INS Vikramaditya participating in Malabar exercise 2020 in the                                                           Indian Ocean

The member countries of this grouping hold summit and military drills among themselves. With China on a spree of staking illegal claims on territories that either belong to other countries or are disputed for years, most countries have begun protesting China’s actions. The member countries in the Quad are directly or indirectly affected.

Captain Dalip Sharma (retd) says, “When China opened its economy, the world  did not realise that in addition to becoming economically strong due to the massive industrialisation happening over there, parallelly there was also ample military build-up happening in China. We can only see the result now in 2020, in the garb of Covid-19 pandemic, how they are unleashing their power by putting pressure on littorals of South China sea, East China Sea, Korea, Taiwan and India.”

In November, the Quad navies participated in the 24^th edition of the Malabar exercise. These exercises made big headlines and attracted global attention because of the geostrategic and geopolitical importance of whole of the Indo-Pacific. Any volatile situation in any part of the Indo-Pacific holds the capability for a worldwide crisis. The reason is simple. Through the Indo-Pacific pass the most important sea lines of communication (SLOCs), which enable oil and energy trade.

These exercises were held in two phases in the Indian Ocean and were led by India. The first phase was carried out in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of Vishakhapatnam, while the second phase was carried out in the Arabian Sea. It was in this edition that the navies of all the four countries participated together after 2007. The latest edition saw simulated war games and combat manoeuvres. It was a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ exercise due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The equipment used in these exercises was the US Navy Ship USS John S McCain (guided-missile destroyer), Australian Navy Ship HMAS Ballarat (long-range frigate) and Japan Maritime Self Defence Ship (JMSDF) JS Onami (destro