ONE WOULD LIKE TO THINK BETTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS:

US courts India in the Indian Ocean (Balaji Chandramohan, 5/05/10, Asia Times)

At the end of the 10-day joint naval exercise Malabar 10, conducted between India and the United States in the Arabian Sea, it became clear the two countries would further cooperate in the Indian Ocean to counter the rise of China in the years to come. The naval war games were held from April 23 to May 2, with these being the 14th in a series of exercises that began in 1992 after the end of the Cold War.

Unlike last year, this month's exercise was a bilateral rather than a multilateral affair. Countries that participated in the 2009 exercise were absent, including Singapore, Japan and Australia, leading to speculation these nations didn't want to antagonize Beijing. The absence of the Quadrilateral Initiative (known as "Quad" or the "axis of democracy") provides a glaring observation in the Malabar 10 exercise.

The Malabar 10 could be the start of a new great game between India and China in the Indian Ocean, with the United States acting as a leveler.