NEW DELHI: Closer security ties, joint naval exercises and strengthening the military relationship are expected to top the agenda in the first ever high level trilateral meeting between India, Japan and Australia that New Delhi is hosting today.While the UPA had been long desisting the move, given the strong protest that China had registered the last time the three nations had carried out such joint talks with the US in 2007 that was accompanied with a Naval exercise, the BJP government has taken a fresh approach to initiate trilateral talks at the Foreign Secretary level.The first meeting - to be attended by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki and Australian Secretary of the department of foreign affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese –will focus on an update on the present security of economic environment of the region as well as developments in the South China sea.Security cooperation, particularly in the naval arena, is expected to dominate the discussions. Sources in the Indian Navy said that preliminary talks have taken place and a joint exercise between the three nations is a good possibility. India has already made its intention clear of conducting joint naval war games with Japan and Australia in the past.While the US is not part of the trilateral discussions, Washington is the main security ally of both Japan and Australia and is positioning itself as the security provider of the Asia Pacific with its `pivot’ the region with more deployments and exercises.Among other issues, the recent phenomenon of artificial islands that China is creating in disputed maritime areas in the South China Sea region is also expected to come up for discussion.India has till now been reluctant to be seen as part of any formulation that could be perceived as some as being an anti Beijing block. In 2007, a quadrilateral dialogue was initiated between India, Japan, Australia and the US but this loose arrangement was short lived after Australia and India pulled back after a strong protest by China to all the member nations.The UPA government, which had hosted the 2007 round of the Malabar naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal that had all the above nations participating, became very sensitive after the Chinese protest and refused for years to carry out any multilateral naval exercises. However, the BJP government has moved in a different direction, with indications clear that not only will the Malabar series be multilateral exercises in the future but that it is in favour of joint discussions and talks at the top level with like minded nations.