Push to recruit India for Australian wargames

Peter Dutton has flagged the participation of India in Australia’s biggest wargames with the US

Australian troops leave a landing craft for a simulated beach assault at Forrest Beach in Queensland during Talisman Sabre 2021. Picture: Australian Defence Force

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has flagged the participation of India in Australia’s biggest wargames with the US, saying he’d like to see the nation’s Quad partner at Exercise Talisman Sabre in two years’ time.

Mr Dutton said the participation of Japan, another Quadrilateral Security Dialogue member, had been a highlight of this year’s exercise in Queensland, which ­officially concluded on Sunday.

He said he hoped Indian forces would be able to attend Talisman Sabre 2023, and believed the matter was under consideration by the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell.

The inclusion of India, which invited Australia to its Malabar naval exercise with the US and Japan last year, would further elevate Talisman Sabre’s strategic significance by bringing in the only absent Quad partner.

“It would be great to see India here,” Mr Dutton said. “Obviously the Quad has been quite remarkable. We have had the ability there … to deepen that relationship, and that relationship will continue to be strengthened.”

The inclusion of India in the biennial exercise would likely infuriate Beijing, with Chinese state-controlled media describing Australia’s participation in Malabar as an unwelcome step towards the establishment of an “Asian version of NATO”.

In an interview on HMAS Canberra during Talisman Sabre 2021, Mr Dutton also expressed confidence that the US would allow the sharing of sensitive missile technology with Australian to establish a sovereign guided weapons industry.

“The Americans have trust and faith and that is built on operations like this over many decades,” he said.

“The intellectual property is tightly held, which is completely understandable.

“But there are also capacity constraints in the US, within their system, around manufacturing and production.

“Australia can provide not only a deepening of our own capability, but we can also provide support back into the US system.”

American paratroopers landed by an Australian Chinook. Picture: Australian Defence force

Mr Dutton said discussions with the US on the matter had been “productive”, and were ongoing. His comments come ahead of a planned bilateral meeting between Scott Morrison and US President Joe Biden, and a face-to-face meeting of Quad nation leaders in Washington DC in September.

Soldiers from Japan’s Ground Self Defence Force for the first time joined a multinational amphibious force during Talisman Sabre 2021, launching a combined assault exercise from HMAS Canberra with Australian soldiers, US Marines and British Royal Marine Commandos. A Japanese ship was also involved in the exercise.

“We want a seamless arrangement with our partners and we want to maximise each other’s capability to have a greater combined effect than would otherwise be the case,” Mr Dutton said.

“Our Five Eyes partnerships obviously, historically, have been the underpinning of our training model and our intelligence gathering and sharing.

“But as we see here, with Japan and with many other partners, there really is a very significant collaboration with countries within the Indo-Pacific, and Japan has really stepped up and is an important partner.”

About 17,000 personnel from seven nations – Australia, the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand – participated in Talisman Sabre 2021, together with 18 ships, 70 fixed wing aircraft and 50 helicopters.

While the Quad is a strategic partnership rather than a defence alliance, all four of its member nations – Australia, the US, Japan and India – are concerned about China’s growing military power, and its willingness to flout global norms.

On HMAS Canberra last week, Australian army Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Barrow said a platoon of Japanese amphibious soldiers had been “completely integrated” in the combined landing force, despite the language barrier.

Lieutenant Colonel Barrow said all of the participants had “fairly similar” ways of operating despite some cultural and language barriers.

“We will always be able to operate together. It is getting that last 10 to 15 per cent to make things even better,” he said.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s national security program director Michael Shoebridge said India’s inclusion in Talisman Sabre was an “absolutely reasonable expectation”.

“The fact that Australia has now joined the Malabar Exercise is another brick in building the Quad relationship,” he said.

“The momentum out of that can be accelerated by Australia reciprocating right away and inviting the Indians to be participants in Talisman Sabre.

“This is exactly what the Quad leaders spoke about in their meeting back in March – they want to use the Quad to address some of the region’s largest problems.

Japan’s participation in Talisman Sabre 2021 comes amid deepening military ties with Australia. The US is also in talks with Australia on expanding the number of bilateral military exercises.