SPEAKING FREELY Navy reflects India's
strategic ambitions By Donald L
Berlin
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have their
say. Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
Recent
and ongoing exercises undertaken by India's navy reflect
the the country's reinvigorated activism in the wider
Asia-Pacific region - a key indicator of India's
continuing emergence on the world stage.
To
India's west, in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Navy
exercised with the navies of Iran and Oman in September
and conducted port calls in both countries, as well as
in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The Indian
flotilla included one of India's new Russian-built
Talwar guided missile frigates, two of India's three
Delhi-class destroyers, two missile corvettes, a
Russian-built Kilo submarine and an oiler. India's
Western (Arabian Sea) Fleet naval chief led the
formation. The maneuvers constituted India's fifth round
of exercises with Oman and the third with the Iranian
navy since 1998.
Meanwhile, India's naval nexus
with Iran is a sign of the close relationship that has
developed between New Delhi and Tehran in recent years.
An accord signed last year gives Iran access to Indian
military technology and reportedly also gives India
access to Iranian military bases in the event of war
with Pakistan. India is also upgrading the Iranian port
of Chahbahar, a move that could foreshadow its use by
the navy. Moreover, the Indo-Iranian entente may have
been deepened further as a result of the October visit
to Tehran of Indian National Security Adviser J Dixit,
who played a key role in cementing ties between the two
states in the early 1990s.
More broadly, the
foregoing maneuvers in the Arabian Sea region reflect
New Delhi's growing attentiveness to challenges arising
from this region. According to India's Maritime
Doctrine, published in April: "The unfolding events
consequent to the war in Afghanistan has brought the
threats emanating on our Western shores into sharper
focus. The growing US and Western presence and
deployment of naval forces, the battle for oil dominance
and its control in the littorals and hinterland, the
internal contradictions within the countries among each
other, the growing assertion of fundamentalist militancy
fueled by jihadi fervor are factors that are likely to
have a long-term impact on the overall security
environment in the IOR [Indian Ocean region]."
The Indian exercises in the Arabian Sea have
been followed up by others since the beginning of
October. Closer to home, the Indian Navy exercised with
the US Navy in the Arabian Sea near Goa last month. This
is the sixth in the "Malabar series" of maneuvers which
began in 1992 and the third such war game held by the
two navies since India and the US resumed defense ties
after the 1998 nuclear tests by New Delhi.
For
its part, an Indian Air Force element, including mid-air
refueling of Il-78 aircraft, was deployed to Alaska to
participate in Exercise Cooperative Cope Thunder in the
July-August period. This activity with the US military,
however, is occurring coincident with signs of a more
clouded Indo-US relationship of late.
Most
striking of all, the Indian Navy is in the midst of a
deployment to the South China Sea and beyond that is
bringing Indian warships to ports in Vietnam, the
Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. This is
the first time that the Indian Navy will have such an
extensive agenda in the South China Sea.
This
activism may also be a prelude to Indian participation
in anti-piracy and anti-terrorism patrols in the Strait
of Malacca. New Delhi did conduct such patrols, in
cooperation with the US Navy in 2001 when the US was
conducting military operations in Afghanistan. In July
2004, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore began
coordinated anti-piracy patrols in the Strait of
Malacca. Discussions between these states and New Delhi
have been ongoing to determine if the Indian Navy will
partner with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
states in this effort.
Immediately to the west
of the Malacca Strait, the Indian Navy , in conjunction
with the navy of Indonesia, began patrolling the Six
Degree Channel on September 1. The channel separates the
Indian island of Nicobar from the Indonesian island of
Sabang (Jakarta's "window" on the Indian Ocean) and the
coast of Aceh in Sumatra. All international shipping
entering or leaving the Malacca Strait normally transits
the Six Degree Channel.
The enhanced Indian
naval profile in Southeast Asia serves several
objectives. One is to strengthen India's so-called "Look
East" policy that is intended in part to balance China's
influence in the eastern Indian Ocean region (Indonesia,
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, etc) and in
Southeast Asia. A second is to familiarize the navy with
a potential theater of operations - the South China Sea
- that probably would be important in any contingency
involving conflict with China. India's naval presence in
this region also is likely intended to help stymie the
apparent flow of arms across the Bay of Bengal to
insurgents in India's northeast and to the Tamil Tigers
in Sri Lanka. Finally, as stated by an Indian Navy
spokesperson, the deployment would also demonstrate the
navy's ability to operate far from home.
Taken
together, these latest naval initiatives, in conjunction
with an October air exercise with Singapore in central
India, ongoing Indian base-building efforts in
Tajikistan and probably elsewhere soon in Central Asia,
the finalization of a defense pact with Sri Lanka, and
newly-strengthened security ties with Myanmar all
underscore India's strategic emergence as a major player
in the broad Asia-Pacific region.
Dr
Donald L Berlin is a professor of international
relations at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security
Studies in Honolulu. He focuses on strategic issues in
the Indian Ocean region. The views expressed here are
those of the author and do not represent official
positions of the US government or any of its
agencies.
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
