The Malabar exercises were first established in 1992 between India and the United States, but due to tensions arising from India’s nuclearization in 1998, it became an annual feature only in 2002.The bilateral exercises evolved from basic naval drills to include aircraft carriers in 2005 and added anti-piracy drills and search and rescue with a U.S. strike group and Coast Guard ships from both countries in 2006.In 2007, the scope of Malabar was enhanced and a five-nation multilateral naval exercise taking on board three other nations Japan, Australia and Singapore was organised. However this display of multilateral naval cooperation heightened China’s anxiety. Both India and the US sought to allay Chinese concerns and the Malabar exercise was made bilateral.Japan joined the Malabar exercises as a permanent member in 2015.All the participating nations in the exercise have clarified earlier that the Malabar series is not aimed at any specific country.