The Malabar Naval Exercise began in 1992 as a bilateral war-games exercise between Indian Navy and United States Navy and has since grown into one of the key multilateral drills involving India, the US, Japan Maritime Self‐Defence Force and Royal Australian Navy — the four members of the Quad. 

In recent years the exercise has been held in varied theatre-locations (Indian Ocean, North Pacific) and includes complex surface, sub-surface, air and carrier operations.

From the strategic-perspective:

• It enhances interoperability among navies of democratic Indo-Pacific powers, signaling collective readiness.
• The quad linkage means the exercise carries implications not just for India but for regional maritime order and deterrence.
• While the Quad remains an informal strategic dialogue without a secretariat or collective defence treaty, its military-exercise dimension like Malabar gives it operational heft.

For aspirants of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam, understanding Malabar and the Quad is significant under the Security and International Relations section — as they reflect India’s foreign-policy choices, maritime doctrine and multilateral cooperation models.