AUSINDEX and the Practice of Minilateral Maritime Security Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

Amid the growing fragmentation and strategic competition characterizing the Indo-Pacific security environment, flexible forms of security cooperation among middle powers have emerged as a salient feature of the contemporary regional order. This paper examines the India–Australia bilateral naval exercise AUSINDEX as a representative case of minilateral security practice, moving beyond conventional approaches that treat military exercises primarily as instruments of operational training. Drawing on an analytical framework that integrates Global International Relations (IR), middle-power studies, and scholarship on minilateralism, the paper demonstrates that AUSINDEX performs three interrelated strategic functions. First, it contributes to capacity-building and the enhancement of operational interoperability between the two navies. Second, it serves as a flexible instrument of strategic signaling within a competitive regional context. Third, it operates as a connective node within the broader networked architecture of Indo-Pacific maritime security. Through repeated and predictable practices, AUSINDEX helps shape behavioral expectations and cooperative norms without relying on formal alliances or highly institutionalized arrangements. The paper argues that conceptualizing naval exercises as minilateral security practices provides deeper insight into the substantive role of middle powers in sustaining regional stability and contributing to the construction of the Indo-Pacific order.

https://doi.org/10.26803/MyRes.2026.06