Sydney recently hosted INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata, visiting to take part in Exercise MALABAR2023 in August. These Indian Navy ships will exercise off Sydney’s coast with United States Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defence Force and Royal Australian Navy platforms. While at sea, these four nations will jointly conduct anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine exercises, including live weapon firing drills.
While the Malabar exercises which started in 1992 involved just India and the United States, the drills how have a distinct Indo-Pacific character. Australia has regularly participated in Malabar since 2020 and 2023 is the first time Malabar is being held off Australia.
