Defence Minister A K Antony has said that a policy decision has been taken to not invite more countries to the annual Indo-US Malabar series of naval exercises, adding that last year’s multi-national war game was an “exception”. Asserting that the Malabar war game will strictly be a bilateral event, the minister said: “Last year, instead of an Indo-US bilateral exercise, a multilateral exercise took place. We have taken a policy decision that it will be a bilateral exercise (from now on)... similar to what has been happening for the last 16 years.” Last year’s Malabar exercise, in which five countries including the US, Japan, Singapore and Australia took part, had come under criticism from various quarters including the Left parties who alleged that it was aimed towards creating a regional military bloc.