Maritime Exercise Malabar Phase II

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Why in the news?

Recently the second phase of exercise Malabar 2021, along with the Quad countries, was conducted in the Bay of Bengal from October 12 to 15 2021.

Objectives:

• It aims to better coordination between the Navies, observation of enemy's tactics, and familiarization with new technologies.

     Phase 1:

• The phase 1 of Malabar exercise 2021 was conducted of the coast of Guam, in the Philippine Sea, in the western Pacific from 26 August to 29 August 2021.

What is Malabar Exercise? 

• It is a multilateral naval exercise.
•  It was started in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and US navies.
•  Japan joined in 2015.
•  Last year it was held in early September off the coast of Japan.

What is Quad?

• Known as the 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue' (QSD), the Quad is an informal strategic forum between four nations, namely - United States of America (USA), India, Australia and Japan. 

Objectives:

•  The primary objective of the Quad is to work for a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
•  The group met for the first time in 2007. It is considered an alliance of maritime democracies, and the forum is maintained by meetings, semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills of all the member countries.

Additional Information:

• The 8th Edition of joint exercise Mitra shakti is conducted between India and Sri-Lanka.
• India and Sri Lanka will begin a 12 – day exercise “Mitra Shakti” in Shri Lankas’ Ampara from 4th October with a focus on enhancing counter terror cooperation.
• The aim of exercise is to enhance interoperability and sharing best practices in counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations between armies of both countries. 
• 7th edition was held in 2019 at foreign training node (FTN) , Pune and Maharashtra   

Other Exercises in 2021