NEW DELHI, Nov 30 : Calling Bangladesh a “friend”, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi voiced confidence that the neighbouring country would see a positive shift after its parliamentary elections scheduled for February 2026.
The CNS who was in Pune where he attended the Passing Out Parade of the 149th Course of National Defence Academy said, “I would still refrain from calling Bangladesh anything other than a friend, because this could be a temporary and transitory moment. We’ll have to wait; elections have to happen, and then something else can happen.”
He also noted that his first official visit after assuming charge as Navy Chief was to Bangladesh. “I was supposed to go to some ‘fancy’ capital but I said, ‘No. I must first go to Bangladesh.’ Tremendous warmth, tremendous hospitality…tremendous nostalgia about what India did. I’m an eternal optimist and I hope that things would turn around as far as Bangladesh is concerned.”
Earlier, while delivering the Admiral J G Nadkarni Memorial Lecture in Pune, the CNS underscored the Indian Navy’s expanding role in safeguarding national maritime interests amid “unprecedented flux in geopolitics, technology and tactics.”
The CNS warned that India’s maritime neighbourhood was increasingly shaped by “sharp geopolitical contestation,” citing the Red Sea crisis, tensions in the Western Pacific, and rising great-power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific. He said analysts describe the region as a “congested and contested strategic arena,” where rising defence spending and rapid naval modernisation have reshaped power dynamics. Large multilateral forums, he noted, were proving “too slow or too divided,” pushing the region toward minilateral, issue-based security groupings.
He further highlighted that technological change is redefining warfighting at sea at an unprecedented pace, with autonomous vessels, AI-driven systems and ubiquitous surveillance transforming naval engagements.
Quoting global projections, he pointed out that autonomous shipping could make up 11-17% of the world fleet by 2040 and that AI-enabled systems are pushing militaries toward “machine-speed operations.” Today’s battlefield, he said, forces navies to handle both “stochastic, low-cost drone swarms” and “ultra-fast hypersonic weapons,” creating an “imbalance in the economics of offence and defence” and expanding the threat posed by even small actors.
Combat readiness, he stressed, remains “our foremost focus,” noting that the nature of conflict now demands a constant-readiness posture. Citing Operation Sindoor as an example, he said the Navy’s rapid deployment, weapon firings within 96 hours, and the presence of a Carrier Battle Group had sent a clear message of deterrence, keeping the Pakistan Navy confined to its own waters. He emphasised that even so-called “low-end threats” have evolved, with non-state groups now possessing capabilities once associated only with nation-states. “This necessitates all our units going to sea to be outfitted for combat,” he said.
The CNS noted that disruptions at sea mirror those on land, including challenges to GPS reliability and satellite communication. As a result, he said, the Navy is “reimagining its approach to training” to build resilience and operational adaptability in an era where the tempo of maritime conflict is accelerating.
(UNI)
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