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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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India downplays naval exercises

Sandeep Dikshit

‘No alternative regional security grouping is being firmed up’

NEW DELHI: India is downplaying the significance of the biggest-ever multinational naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, saying that it is merely an enlargement of the war games regularly held with the U.S. Navy.

It also sought to distance itself from the notion that an alternative regional security grouping is being firmed up with these exercises.

Conscious of Chinese sensitivities on the subject, the Navy on Tuesday said, “it is not a planned multination exercise. One ship from another country is embedded with the U.S. fleet and some others wanted to join. There is no move towards setting up any arrangement against any nation. The Indian Navy is driven not by being U.S., China or Pakistan-centric. It concerns itself purely with India.”

“We engage constructively to ensure stability in the region to allow the country’s economical and social development. None of the activities of the Indian Navy is designed, planned or executed in support of any other agenda,” said the Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Pradeep Chauhan. “There is no movement of setting up a quadrilateral force or front against anybody,” he said.

Beijing had earlier issued a demarche to India, the U.S., Japan and Australia demanding to know the purpose behind a meeting of the quadrilateral in Manila. A demarche is a formal diplomatic communication from a country seeking information from another. Besides these four countries, Singapore, a close ally of the U.S., is also participating in the war games in early September.

The exercise, to be held between the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Visakhapatnam, would involve three aircraft carriers, two of them nuclear-powered, a nuclear submarine, several frigates and destroyers and over three dozen fighter aircraft.

Rear Admiral Chauhan also spoke about a major foray by the Navy to West Asia where it will make several port calls and conduct preliminary exercises with navies from France, the U.K. and Oman. Significantly some of these exercises will be conducted just off the choke points of the Straits of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb through which most of the world’s oil supply passes. “These are places of geographical and strategic significance and we will get the opportunity to hone our skills with top-of-the-line consorts,” he said. Indian warships will also execute a standard patrol close to the Gulf of Aden.

“The exercises represent our desire for constructive engagement with our neighbours. In the maritime domain, neighbours are those whose coastlines are connected by sea. They will help revalidate our operational readiness and also expose our men to operations in different environments.”

Asked about the sensitivities of countries in the region over exercises with the U.K. Navy, he said, “we are conscious of that. The exercises have been carefully calibrated. Not every exercise has a foreign policy aim.”

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