SRINAGAR, India, 2 Feb: For decades, India has focused its defense policy on its land borders with rivals Pakistan and China. Now, as its global ambitions expand, it is beginning to flex its naval power in international waters, including anti-piracy patrols and a widely publicized deployment close to the Red Sea to help protect ships from attacks during Israel\u2019s war with Hamas.
\nIndia sent three guided missile destroyers and reconnaissance aircraft in November when Yemen-based Houthi rebels began targeting ships in solidarity with Hamas, causing disruptions in a key trading route that handles about 12% of global trade.
\nThe deployment highlights the country as a \u201cproactive contributor\u201d to international maritime stability, said Vice Adm. Anil Kumar Chawla, who retired in 2021 as head of India\u2019s southern naval command.
\n\u201cWe are not doing it only out of altruism. Unless you are a maritime power you can never aspire to be a global power,\u201d Chawla said. India, already a regional power, is positioning itself \u201cas a global player today, an upcoming global power,\u201d he said.
\nIndia is widely publicizing the deployments, signaling its desire to assume a wider responsibility in maritime security to the world and its growing maritime ambitions to regional rival China.
\n\u201cIt is a message to China that, look, we can deploy such a large force here. This is our backyard. Though we don\u2019t own it, but we are probably the most capable and responsible resident naval power,\u201d Chawla said.
\nThe Indian navy has helped at least four ships, three of which were attacked by Houthi rebels and another that Washington blamed on Iran, a charge denied by Tehran. It has also conducted several anti-piracy missions.
\nIran-backed Houthi rebels have targeted dozens of ships in the Red Sea, saying they are seeking a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. and its allies have responded with multiple rounds of bombings of rebel positions. India has not joined the U.S.-led force battling the Houthis.
\nOn Jan. 26, the Indian guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam assisted the crew of a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in fighting a fire after it was hit by a missile in the Gulf of Aden. About 10 days earlier, the Visakhapatnam responded to a distress call by the U.S.-owned Genco Picardy merchant vessel following a drone attack in the same waters.
\n\u201cMaritime security has not been a strong pillar of India\u2019s foreign policy engagements in a way we are beginning to see now,\u201d said Darshana M. Baruah, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. \u201cChina is a factor in this.\u201d
\nThe rivals are already locked in a military standoff along their disputed border high in the mountains.
\nChina has built up its presence over the years in the Indian Ocean, a key route for its energy supplies. It has the world\u2019s largest navy by number of ships, more than three times the size of the Indian navy. China also operates a powerful fleet of large coast guard ships and what is referred to as its maritime militia consisting of fishing vessels that cooperate with the coast guard in asserting territorial claims in the South China Sea.
\nBeijing has deepened its engagement in the Indian Ocean mainly through infrastructure deals with India\u2019s neighbors, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and most recently the Maldives.
\n\u201cThe Chinese are looking for more and more naval bases in the extended Indian Ocean,\u201d said Lt. Gen. D. S. Hooda, a former Indian military officer and now a strategic expert. \u201cSeeing that, India doesn\u2019t have any other option but to keep building up its own.\u201d AP<\/p>\n
The Maldives government last week gave clearance to a Chinese research ship to dock in its port. Similar Chinese ships have made port calls in Sri Lanka in 2022 and 2023 amid fears in India that they could be used to surveil the region. India\u2019s concerns led Sri Lanka earlier this year to declare a one-year moratorium on foreign research ships entering its waters.
\nExperts say the growing competition with China is energizing India to acquire more advanced ships, submarines and aircraft and invest more in technology and infrastructure. The navy\u2019s share of India\u2019s burgeoning defense budget, which reached $72.6 billion last year, has increased to 19% from about 14%. The Indian army has traditionally received the lion\u2019s share of the military budget.
\nThe navy has also built strategic partnerships through participation in joint exercises with other nations in the region and beyond.
\nBaruah, who directs the Indian Ocean Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment, said there is a \u201cneed for Delhi\u2019s strategic thinking to be maritime-oriented, not just as an option for crisis response but as a theater to advance India\u2019s most pressing geopolitical and strategic priorities in the Indo-Pacific.\u201d
\nIndia, the U.S., Australia and Japan are members of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, which has repeatedly accused China of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea and aggressively pushing its maritime territorial claims. The navies of the four countries regularly hold drills seen as part of an initiative to counter China\u2019s growing assertiveness in the Pacific.
\nBeijing maintains that its military is purely defensive to protect what it says are its sovereign rights, and calls the Quad an attempt to contain its economic growth and influence.
\nFor Indian naval planners, the South China Sea remains a top concern, with about 60% of India\u2019s cargo passing through shipping lanes in the Beijing-dominated region.
\nChawla said India doesn\u2019t have \u201cstrength to project power into the South China Sea right now\u201d because of the vast Chinese maritime assets there.
\n\u201cFrankly, if it comes to a shooting war, India does not really have the capability and Quad does not have the mandate,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s not a NATO-like alliance yet.\u201d AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SRINAGAR, India, 2 Feb: For decades, India has focused its defense policy on its land borders with rivals Pakistan and China. Now, as its global ambitions expand, it is beginning to flex its naval power in international waters, including anti-piracy patrols and a widely publicized deployment close to the Red Sea to help protect ships […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}