New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) The high-voltage Malabar exercise featuring the navies of India, the US, Australia and Japan began off the coast of Sydney on Friday with an aim to boost their overall interoperability.

Indian Navy's indigenous frontline warships INS Sahyadri, INS Kolkata and P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft are participating in the 11-day exercise.

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The exercise will witness high intensity of operations in all three domains of warfare -- anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine including live weapon firing drills, officials said.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi attended the inaugural ceremony of the exercise.

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The annual wargame includes both sea and harbor phases with a focus on expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific that has been witnessing growing military muscle flexing by China, they said.

It is for the first time that Australia is hosting the exercise.

Following India's invitation, Australia participated in the Malabar exercise in 2020, effectively making it a drill by all four member nations of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition.

Australia participated in subsequent exercises as well.

The Malabar exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. Japan became a permanent member of the exercise in 2015.

This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.

In 2020, the exercise was hosted in two phases in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

In 2021, the mega wargame took place off the coast of Guam in the Western Pacific.

Last year, it was hosted by Japan off Yokosuka island near the East China Sea.

There have been mounting global concerns over China's growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

This year marks the 27th edition of Malabar exercise.

India, the US, Australia, Japan and many other like-minded countries are working towards ensuring a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

The bilateral defence and strategic ties between India and Australia are on an upward trajectory in the last few years.

In June 2020, India and Australia elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and signed a landmark deal for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support.

The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) allows the militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)