Malabar naval exercise will be upgraded: Ram Madhav

In a panel discussion on Indo-Pacific on Thursday, Ram Madhav, the general secretary of the ruling BJP said that the government was thinking of upgrading the tri-lateral Malabar naval exercise that currently involves the US, Japan and India. He elaborated that the government was thinking of including commerce and trade in it as well. He also rejected the idea that the exercise was meant to contain China in the region. "We don't want it to be seen as a group against China," Madhav said.

He said that while the government is sympathetic to the request of including Australia in the group, it was also willing to take more countries of the region into the group.

Meanwhile, India's Navy chief, Admiral Sunil Lanba, also said the region is facing a deficiency of trust and hence there is need for developing trust between countries in the region and transparent inter-operability.