After a gap of 13 years, Australian forces joined their counterparts from the United States, Japan and India on Tuesday for an annual naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal in a move widely seen as sending a message to China

This show of strength follows a deterioration in ties between the four nations and Beijing and comes as China announces new bans on Australian imports
The three-day Malabar exercise off India’s southernmost coast comes amid increasing strain in the relationships between each of the four countries and China, and has been interpreted by many experts as a demonstration of resolve in the face of Beijing’s increasingly muscular foreign policy.

Indian troops have been locked in a stand-off with their Chinese counterparts along the two countries’ disputed Himalayan border for the past six months, while in recent days China has announced bans on a string of Australian imports, from barley to lobster, in what is widely seen as retribution for Canberra joining US calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3108312/australia-sends-signal-china-it-rejoins-us-japan-and-india