New Delhi:

The Indian Navy is monitoring the developments in West Asia and also keeping a sharp watch on the Chinese Navy’s activities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) by the hour, a top Navy officer said on Wednesday in the context of the escalating Hamas-Israel conflict.

Replying to a host of questions in a session at the Global Maritime India Summit 2023 here, Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, who heads the crucial Western Naval Command, said the Navy is fully aware of Chinese activities in the IOR or the possible ripple effects of happenings in West Asia.

“There is constantly at this point of time there is someone in the naval headquarters or the command headquarters working on what could happen after whatever is happening in West Asia (a reference to the Hamas-Israel conflict),” he said.

The vice admiral said as far as the Chinese are concerned, we are keeping a sharp watch on whatever they are doing in the South China Sea.

“In the Indian Ocean, we are keeping a sharp watch as to where their research ship, spy ship, satellite tracking ship, warships (are) wherever they are by the hour,” Vice Admiral Tripathi said while replying to questions.

Earlier speaking at the event, the senior naval commander also said that piracy has been one of the constant challenges in the last 10-15 years, “It is largely contained through international cooperation and coordination,” he added.

Nityanand Rai, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, said with India’s growing stature, its responsibility in the Indian Ocean is also increasing.

On the occasion, S Paramesh, Additional Director General, of the Indian Coast Guard, emphasised collectively increasing the sharing of information for better threat assessment and coordinated response.

“Investments in technologies like satellite surveillance and unmanned drones will greatly enhance maritime security efforts,” Mr Paramesh said.

Hostilities between Israel and Hamas began after armed Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip launched an unprecedented attack on Israel by land, air, and sea on October 7. Since the start of hostilities, as many as 2,778 Palestinians have been killed.

Media reports have cited official Israeli sources as saying that at least 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

India’s Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar speaks during a media briefing of the 23rd Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) g in Colombo on October 11, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India wants to be a “friend to the world”, the voice of the global south, and will work to ensure a free, open and inclusive Indian Ocean region, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, speaking at the annual meeting of the 23-member Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) being held in Colombo, where he also raised the “dangers” of unsustainable debt. Mr. Jaishankar, who met with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, also witnessed the signing of three agreements on bilateral cooperation. The agreements include Indian assistance for housing projects, modernising schools and a new joint project between the Indian National Dairy Development Board, Amul cooperative and the Sri Lankan Cargill Group to increase milk production in Sri Lanka.

The Minister’s visit, three months after Mr. Wickremesinghe’s visit to Delhi, also comes days ahead of the Sri Lankan President’s travel to Beijing for the Belt and Road Forum, where he is expected to discuss the Sri Lankan debt crisis, and Chinese infrastructural projects. 

“We should be clear where the dangers are, be it in hidden agendas, in unviable projects or in unsustainable debt. Exchange of experiences, sharing of best practices, greater awareness and deeper collaboration are part of the solutions,” Mr. Jaishankar told a joint press appearance with the Foreign Ministers of Sri Lanka  M.U.M Ali Sabry and Bangladesh A.K. Abdul Momen, in comments he appeared to direct at China’s loans and projects to countries in the region. 

Talks with IMF

The conference in Colombo comes even as Sri Lanka’s government is continuing negotiations with the IMF for a $2.9 billion bailout to avoid a debt crisis, with the second tranche of $330 million not yet released. Sri Lanka has won support from India including through lines of credit, debt payment moratoriums, and currency swap arrangements worth almost $4 billion, and is hoping to finalise a debt restructuring package with China, one of its bigger creditors. 

After taking charge of the IORA forum on Wednesday, Mr. Sabry said Sri Lanka, which had last chaired the grouping in 2003-4, was a founding member, of the Bandung conference which led to the Non Aligned Movement, and also had introduced a UN resolution to declare the Indian Ocean region and airspace a “Zone of Peace” in 1971. 

Mr. Jaishankar said that the “spirit of 1971” Mr. Sabry had referred to was important, but that the IORA group must  “discourage any hidden agendas to the contrary”, and must follow the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) as the “Constitution of the Seas”. 

Also read: Bankrupt Sri Lanka gets China’s tentative agreement on debt restructure

“At a time of global polarisation, we are taking the position in IORA that we want an ocean free open and inclusive rules-based ocean for the benefit of all the countries of the region. We don’t want anyone to play a proxy war in the Indian ocean specific area,” Mr. Momen told The Hindu here, adding that there is immense global interest in IORA as the Indian Ocean, which sees 86% of global trade, is the “most important ocean”. 

During the meeting, Sri Lanka took over as Chair, while India took over as Vice Chair of the IORA grouping, that was started in 1997 and now includes 23 countries in south Asia, south east Asia and Australia, west Asia and Africa, all of whom are situated around the Indian Ocean. In addition, about 11 major powers are dialogue partners including China, U.S., U.K., Russia, Japan, Turkiye, and the most recent entrant Saudi Arabia. 

“Sri Lanka has a multicultural, multireligious ethos, and we see ourselves in the centre of the Indian Ocean,” former High Commissioner to India and the Executive Director General of the IORA Secretariat in Colombo Sudarshan Seneviratne told The Hindu. “Hosting such a major conference gives a symbolic message, that despite the economic crisis we had, we feel some confidence that we are holding our own and will come through it,” he added, when asked about the significance of holding a major conference now. 

New York:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said it is “very reasonable” for India to “actually prepare” for a far greater Chinese presence than seen before in the Indian Ocean, asserting that the concerns in the strategically important region will be better addressed if the Quad countries work together.

“Pearls look benign unless you ask the oysters. They may have a slightly different perspective,” Mr Jaishankar said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday.

He was asked about growing Chinese activity in the Indian Ocean region, described as the “string of pearls”, and what the Quad grouping of India, the US, Australia and Japan should do to ensure that the balance of power does not shift in a way that would be adverse to India or the US.

Mr Jaishankar said if one were to look at the last 20-25 years, there’s been a steady increase in the Chinese naval presence and activity in the Indian Ocean.

“But there’s been a very sharp increase in the size of the Chinese navy. So when you have a very much bigger navy, that navy is going to be obviously visible in terms of its deployment somewhere,” he said, citing the examples of Chinese port-building in Gwadar in Pakistan and Hambantota in Sri Lanka.

“Now in many cases, I would say, looking back, maybe the governments of the day, the policymakers of the day, perhaps underestimated the importance of this and how these ports could work in future,” Mr Jaishankar said.

“Each one is a little unique in a way. And certainly, we obviously do watch many of them very carefully for any security implications that they have for us. So, from an Indian point of view, I would say it’s very reasonable for us…to not try and prepare but actually prepare for a far greater Chinese presence than we have seen before,” he said.

S Jaishankar pointed out that maritime concerns are not necessarily today between two nations and there are maritime issues for countries to deal with.

There are maritime threats of piracy, smuggling, terrorism and “if there is no authority, no monitoring, no force out there to actually enforce the rule of the law, it’s a problem,” he said.

The minister said if one looks at what historically used to be the American presence in the Indian Ocean, it is much less so today.

“So what it has done is, it has left gaps and it has left gaps at a time when threats have actually increased because the problem forces in a way, the problem people, actually are much more technologically adept than they were before,” he said.

S Jaishankar noted that there are global commons in the Indian Ocean region to be safeguarded and “there are concerns out there which are better addressed if the Quad countries work together”.

“Times have changed, force levels have changed, capabilities have changed, and certainly in those that have gone up, China is one of them. But there are countries with which we work and there are countries with which we don’t or we work less,” he said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)