Favouring balancing of relations
with China to ensure India's energy and maritime security,
Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Monday said the Gwadar
strategic port being built by Pakistan with Chinese assistance
"has serious strategic implications for India".
"Being only 180 nautical miles from the exit of the
straits of Hormuz, Gwadar, being bulit in Baluchistan coast,
would enable Pakistan take control over the world energy
jugular and interdiction of Indian tankers," he said.
The challenge for India was to balance relations with
China in such a manner that competition for strategically
significant space in the Indian ocean leads to cooperation
rather than conflict, he said in his address at the fifth T S
Narayanaswamy memorial lecture here.
"The pressure for countries to cooperate in the maritime
military domain to ensure smooth flow of energy and commerce
on the high seas will grow even further," he said speaking on
"oceanic influence on India's development in the next decade."
Talking about "Chinese designs on the Indian ocean," Mehta
said China had a strategy called 'string of pearls,' as per
which it seeks to set up bases and outposts across the globe,
strategically located along its energy lines, to monitor and
saefeguard energy flows. "Each pearl in the string is a link
in a chain of the Chinese maritime presence," he said.
"Among other locations, the string moves northwards upto
Gwadar deep sea port on Pakistan's Makran coast. A highway is
under construction joining Gwadar with Karachi and there are
plans to connect the port with the Karakoram highway, thus
providing China a gateway to Arabian sea," he said adding this
could pose a problem for India.
Further, India, as a regional power with a dominant
position in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), "must take the lead
in initiating collaborative frameworks in the maritime arena,"
Mehta said.
Stating that oceanic influence on India's foreign policy
would grow in the next decade, he also said the navy wanted a
single coordinating policy making apex body which would "meet
the challenges of the future."
"The naval headquarters is of the view that a maritime
security board should be created, which will coordinate with
14 different government departments and agencies repsonsible
for maritime affairs," he said.
Expressing concern over the shipbuilding industry in the
country, he said it was "very small by present global
standards."
"No nation can aspire for great power status by only
buying ships.... We have to build them. Despite orders of 32
warships and six submarines with defence shipyards, their
capacity and capability to build ships are just not enough to
meet our force accretion plans," he said.
Interacting with the audience, Mehta said the
Sethusamudram shipping canal project was a "viable one but may
not be useful to big ships running on international routes,"
Bureau Report