India Takes Centre Stage as Quad Navies Conclude Malabar 2025 Near Guam

India joined its Quad partners, including Australia, Japan, and the United States, in wrapping up Exercise Malabar 2025, an intensive nine-day maritime drill held around Guam from November 10-18. The exercise, now in its 29th edition, continues to serve as a cornerstone of the Quad’s security cooperation and a key platform for India to deepen operational synergy with like-minded Indo-Pacific partners.

Initially launched in 1992 as a bilateral U.S.–India drill, Malabar has since transformed into one of the Indo-Pacific’s most sophisticated multilateral maritime exercises. This year marked the sixth full Quad iteration, highlighting the grouping’s growing strategic cohesion and its commitment to maintaining a free, open, and stable Indo-Pacific.

Capt. Dave Huljack, commodore of U.S. Destroyer Squadron 15, praised the interoperability achieved during the drills. “I’ve seen tremendous growth from our combined forces as they’ve been working side-by-side, learning from one another, and developing those person-to-person relationships,” he said, extending special thanks to Indian, Australian, and Japanese contingents.

For India, the deployment of the Shivalik-class stealth frigate INS Sahyadri (F49) highlighted New Delhi’s focus on strengthening maritime partnerships and expanding its presence across the Western Pacific. Indian naval participation included advanced anti-submarine, anti-surface, and information-sharing operations, areas central to New Delhi’s evolving maritime strategy.

The joint drills brought together a formidable Quad line-up:

• India: INS Sahyadri, a key platform in the Navy’s Eastern Fleet
• Australia: HMAS Ballarat
• Japan: JS Hyūga, a Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer
• United States: P-8A Poseidon aircraft, a submarine from Task Force 74, an EOD mobile unit, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald

The exercises included complex manoeuvring, advanced warfare tactics, and subject-matter expert exchanges, all aimed at strengthening interoperability among the four navies as they operate in increasingly contested waters.

This year’s edition was led by the United States, with exercise leadership rotating among Quad members annually, reflecting the grouping’s shared commitment to burden-sharing and sustained operational readiness across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

As Quad navies continue to coordinate across the Indo-Pacific, India’s expanding role in Malabar remains central to its alignment with regional democracies on security. With growing maritime challenges across the region, Malabar 2025 once again demonstrated how India and its Quad partners are shaping cooperative security architecture in the Indo-Pacific, one exercise at a time.

Team BharatShakti