US wants security talks with India, Japan, Australia

The US is keen to start a quadrilateral security dialogue with India, Japan and Australia – a move, which appears to be in response to growing maritime assertiveness by China in Indian Ocean region.

“One idea to consider is initiating a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between India, Japan, Australia and the US,” commander of US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry B Harris, said in New Delhi on Wednesday. “Adding the US into this dialogue can amplify the message that we are united behind the international rules-based order that has kept the peace and is essential to all of us,” he added, delivering a keynote address in Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. He also said that the next Malabar Naval exercise could take place in north of Philippine Sea. China is understood to be upset over inclusion of Japan’s Maritime Self Defence Force as a regular participant in Malabar Exercise, which hitherto remained a war drill by the navies of India and US.

The US move to build greater synergy with India, Australia and Japan in maritime domain came at a time when China’s dispute with its neighbours – Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Philippines – over South China Sea escalated. Amid reports about China deploying surface-to-air missiles in one of the disputed islands in South China Sea, New Delhi recently joined US and other nations to ask Beijing to refrain from taking any “unilateral action” in the region.

India and the US of late also concluded the roadmap for greater maritime cooperation in Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.