Exercise Talisman Sabre is a biennial, multinational military exercise led by Australia and the United States.
Leadership of the exercise switches between Australia and the US every 2 years.
The exercise focuses on crisis-action planning and contingency response, enhancing both nations’ military capabilities to deal with regional contingencies and the War on Terrorism.
The exercise is historically held in odd-numbered years starting from 2005, with the ninth iteration taking place in 2021.
Talisman Sabre 2021 was the largest bilateral combined training activity between the Australian and the USA and saw the participation of approximately 17,000 military personnel from seven nations on land, air and sea. The other countries include Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and U.K.
What is Quad?
The Quadrilateral security dialogue or Quad was first mooted by the Japanese Prime Minister in 2007.
However, the idea couldn’t move ahead with Australia pulling out of it, apparently due to Chinese pressure.
In November 2017, India, the US, Australia and Japan gave shape to the long-pending “Quad” Coalition to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence (especially China).
Australia is worried about China’s growing interest in its land, infrastructure and politics and influence on its universities.
In the last decade, Japan believes that China has tried to bully it on several territorial issues.
China has border disputes with India. China is also blocking India’s path into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
A weakened US sees the coalition as an opportunity to regain its influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
India has been hesitant about the Quad, in part because it does not want to isolate China and because it has had a history of staying clear of security alliances.
