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India’s Maritime Concerns and StrategiesVice Admiral P S Das, PVSM, UYSM, VSM (Retd) |
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Preamble The Emerging Security Environment The Indian Ocean At the same time, the region suffers from serious vulnerabilities. The sea lanes entering and exiting from these waters pass through several narrow passages e.g. the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Aden, Suez Canal, the Strait of Malacca etc, creating ‘choke points’, literally, making it possible for rogue states and non-state actors to interdict or disrupt shipping, thus, jeopardizing the safety of cargoes moving across the important east-west trade routes. Last year, more than half of all piracy at sea, worldwide, took place in the Malacca Straits and surrounding waters. With some 60,000 ships transiting the Strait annually, effects of consequent disruption in the trade chain on the economic growth of most major economies are not difficult to visualise. Furthermore, most littorals have been nation states for less than fifty years, and religious, ethnic and societal discords plague many of them. The fact that several are ruled by authoritarian regimes and are dependent on ‘single product’ economies, especially in the Gulf region, adds to their domestic and political fragility. On the one hand, therefore, the Indian Ocean region is of great strategic significance and one in which major countries external to it have a stake. On the other, most of its littorals have potentially unstable societies that can suffer destabilisation, economically and politically. As the largest country in the region, and one with important economic and technological growth imperatives, India has, at the same time, to be seen as a credible, stabilising influence and also be able to safeguard its own interests from regional turmoil and instabilities. India’s Concerns India shares maritime boundaries, not just with three of its South Asian neighbours, but shares the Andaman Sea in the Bay of Bengal with four countries of the ASEAN viz. Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. While boundaries have been delineated with most of them, there are, inevitably, irritants of poaching, smuggling and illegal movement of arms. Arms have been taken across to the East Coast of Sri Lanka for use of the LTTE terrorists from the Thai coast through the Andaman group of islands. Similarly, they have been known to be taken up the coast through Myanmar and on to our north eastern states. Another serious concern concerns the narcotics trade which is inextricably linked to the arms trade and, therefore, to terrorism. India is located in the middle of two major narcotics centres of the world, centering on Myanmar in the east and Afghanistan in the West. We hear a lot about seizures made at airports and on land but one seldom gets to hear of transportation by sea, which is infinitely easier and permits large quantities to be shipped. Two years ago, a Japanese vessel, masquerading under a false name and flag, was routinely investigated in an Indian port and found to have been engaged in the smuggling of narcotics and arms. There must be many other vessel carriers which have not been caught. Finally, as highlighted earlier, India’s interface with the Asia-Pacific region is crucial to its economic growth. Stability in the countries with which we trade, and their prosperity, is, therefore, in India’s interest. Safe movement of seaborne commerce is essential to this relationship. Maritime Terrorism The External Stakeholders Neighbourhood Relations with Pakistan continue to move in ‘ups and downs’. At this moment, the environment is one of relative tranquility but this could change quickly. The reasons why this is so need not be elaborated and it would be enough to say that it is quite unlikely that this scenario will change radically in the foreseeable future, given the contradictions and compulsions in Pakistan’s ruling establishment. Therefore, the Indian Navy, like its sister Services, has to be prepared to cope with any military eventualities. The main strength of the Pakistan Navy lies in its submarines and aircraft equipped with anti-ship missiles, but broadly speaking, India enjoys the required superiority in maritime power which is sufficiently dissuasive and this superiority must be maintained. The terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir – and even elsewhere in India – supported from Pakistan, is continuing, and we must have the necessary capabilities, military and diplomatic, to cope with it and also to bring pressure to bear on Pakistan from the international community. Probability of a military conflict between the two countries is not high so long as India maintains the required superiority. Pakistan is developing the port of Gwadar on the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz which needs to be factored into our security calculations, given that India’s oil lifeline can easily be threatened by hostile elements, both state and non-state, operating out of Gwadar. The Littoral Domain India’s Maritime Strategy
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