Have we shown inadequate concern about China’s sensitivities? We have held naval exercises with the PLA (navy) on many occasions, but at their insistence these have remained confined only to basic manoeuvres. Moreover, the Chinese continuously look over their shoulders to ensure that they balance the IN with the Pakistan Navy. Talk of China feeling “encircled” is nothing but dialectic disinformation; we have no presence whatsoever in the Pacific. At the same time, India is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and that is where China has implemented its “string of pearls” strategy by creating right around us what are best described as “weapon-client states”: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. In this context, Gwadar, situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is probably the first in a chain of ports that China is developing in our neighbourhood, and which could provide future facilities to its ships and missile-carrying nuclear submarines.

Why do we need to cooperate with navies of other democracies? The Indian Ocean’s vast reaches are full of security hazards, and we face the full gamut of low intensity threats from piracy and hijacking to trafficking in arms and human beings, and smuggling of WMDs. We need to remind ourselves that in June 1999, alert Indian customs officers in Kandla port had discovered a North Korean ship carrying a clandestine cargo of missile components from Pyongyang to Karachi. No navy can undertake all these tasks single-handed, and it appears sensible to make common cause with other like-minded nations. The tsunami disaster relief and Lebanon refugee evacuation operations clearly showed us the huge benefits of being able to talk, work alongside and operate seamlessly with other navies; or have the ability to be “interoperable”.

... contd.