Harsha Kakar
The recently concluded ASEAN and APEC Summits were dominated by Chinese actions in the South China Sea. Chinese submarines and war ships have also increased their foray into India’s backyard (Indian Ocean) on the pretext of monitoring piracy. Its development of the Gwadar port in Pakistan provides it the opportunity of dominating world oil shipping emanating from the Gulf. It also enables it to open a new naval front against India’s western shores.The world in general and India in particularly are waking up to China’s growing naval might.
The Chinese navy has graduated from brown water to a blue water capable navy. This implies it has begun sailing away from close to its shores to across the globe. It is growing in capacityand would soon include aircraft carriers and a host of other support ships and nuclear powered submarines,thus becoming a formidable force, all within the coming decade. This mushrooming growth has given it the confidence to renew its claims over the South and East China Sea’s.
In the South China Sea, China has begun piling sand onto reefs to create artificial islands claiming them to be bases for fishing and oil exploration. This claim has been rejected by all rim nations, as the designs are more military, rather than economic, with open construction of runways and barracks. Its demand for control over the seas, threatens the very concept of an open sea policy. The new islandsare possibly bases for China’ssecond strike nuclear capability consisting of submarine launched ballistic missiles.
China’sclaims have existed for some time, however with enhanced naval power, become more forceful. While returning from a visit to Vietnam in 2011, the Indian Naval Ship, Airavat, was warned via radio to exit the disputed waters of the South China Sea. It ignored the message and the incident passed over. In Oct, the US moved its destroyer,USS Lassen, within 12 nautical miles offone of the Chinese artificial islands. Though the move was monitored, no action took place. The US has supported the rim countries in their stand against Chinese claims.
Defence agreements already exist between the US, Philippines, Japan and Korea. The US President during his visit to the Philippines for the APEC summit granted $250 million to boost the naval capabilities of the rim nations. He also promised the loan of a US naval vessel to the Philippines.
In the same vein, India, Japan and the ASEAN countries are working together to develop capabilities to counter China’s growing hegemony in the high seas. Japan has joined India and US by participating in joint naval exercises. This year was its first participation.It has also enhanced its defence budget with the intention of increasing the capacity of its navy. Indian naval vessels have increased the frequency of their visitsto SE Asia. This indicates an enhanced presence in the region.
India’s has its own reasons to question the Chinese diktat. India is involved with oil explorations off the coast of Vietnam in the PhuKhanh basin, which China claims is a disputed zone. India’s sea trade moves via the region, and hostile Chinese action could adversely affect our economy. India has also always been a supporter of the open sea policy; hence principally it would never support Chinese actions. Japan too has its reasons. It controls the Senkakau islands which are claimed by China. For the other nations, it is the smaller islands or reefs under their control which China disputes. China knows that it is acting against international norm, however where national interests are concerned, China has ignored international criticism.
The Indian navy, considering future Chinese threat is alsoexpanding its capability. Its submarine fleet, which is woefully short, is likely to be made up soon, with construction underway. Our ship building has been behind schedule in every category. As compared to the other services, construction of ships and thence naval capabilitytakes longer to create and iseasily affected by delays. Therefore it would be at least a decade before we achieve our planned capability.
The present Government realizes the limited impact a weak navy could have in ensuring security of our sea lanes of communication, and has begun pushing development.In the interim, India is contracting an additional nuclear submarine from Russia. This delay in capability development can be offset by two means, firstly more aggressive sailing of ships and secondly taking advantage of the strategic benefits of our island territories.
The Andaman and Nicobar islands have a natural strategic advantage. Located close to Indonesia and Malaysia they also dominate the Malacca straits. Thus are ideal for monitoring movement of naval shipping. They provide launch pads for forays towards SE Asia. At present no major naval base exists on the islands, however would come up, in the near future. A longer runway is under construction at Campbell bay, in the Nicobar Islands. This would permit enhanced aerial monitoring of the sea.With the move of additional army and air force assets the capability of the islands to function as a launch pad would increase.
While we continue to enhance capacity and capability of our navy and our island territories, simultaneously we should develop closer naval partnerships and cooperation with countries located around the South China Sea. India and Japan are two nations capable of countering growing Chinese naval power and thus should work in close coordination with other SE Asian nations. India has to be aggressive in its planning and execution, if it desires to continue to be a strong counter weight to China’s hegemonistic claims.
(The author is a retired Major General of the Indian Army )
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