For eons it has been a proven fact that a maritime state enjoys greater economic benefits as compared to a land-locked one. A coastline offers a window—to trade with the world, create maritime industries, harvest fish and minerals from its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and exercise what is called ‘maritime power’.
India’s geography, economic engagement with the rest of the world, her development and security, are all intimately connected to the maritime domain. With seas on three sides and high mountains on the fourth, it has been said that India lies in the very lap of the Indian Ocean. Few Indians realise that we possess the second largest peninsula in the world.
While that translates into a coastline of 5422 Km, India’s outlying island territories add another 2094 Km, making up a total coastline length of 7516Km. This is just as well because our foreign trade is almost entirely dependent on the seas since land frontiers cannot permit viable trade due to contemporary history and geography!
These topographical properties along with India’s geo-strategic location at the head of the Indian Ocean have impressed geographers and geologists for ages as such a maritime configuration offers unlimited opportunity in terms of large number of ports, maritime industry, fisheries, offshore minerals and many other economic resources.
But with opportunities come challenges. And the maritime environment around India is full of challenges. A primary factor that contributes to these challenges is the access ‘gates’ (nautically known as choke points) to the Indian Ocean. These include the Cape of Good Hope (a half choke point), the Mozambique Channel, Suez Canal, Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Malacca Strait, Sunda Strait and Lombok Strait.
It is this set of challenges that requires Indian naval presence at choke points and some important nodes—as a deterrent against malafide intent so that maritime security can be guaranteed—not just for Indian trade but also for global trade passing close to our shores.
While these non-traditional threats are a challenge of recent vintage, traditional threats from India’s adversaries constitute an even more critical factor impinging on India’s security. Chinese naval platforms—including their submarines have been making regular forays into the Indian Ocean posing a clear and present danger.
They visit to eavesdrop, collect intelligence and familiarize themselves with our waters and the traffic off our harbors. And one cannot forget the consequences of places and bases (including Djibouti) that China has built in the Indian Ocean. These forays and presence constitute the second challenge.
The Indian Navy is constantly engaged in keeping choke points and critical areas of the region under surveillance. In fact, it is under these circumstances that the navy had embarked upon ‘mission-based deployments’ a couple of years ago.
These deployments have meant at least one warship each, deployed in the Persian Gulf; the Gulf of Aden (anti-piracy patrol); Central Indian Ocean; Southwest Indian Ocean; Bay of Bengal; Malacca Strait; and the Lombok Strait. Each of these hot spots lies at an average of 1000 nautical miles from the nearest Indian naval base, and many more hundreds of miles from a ship’s home port! That entails frequent turnarounds for reasons of logistics and maintenance.
Thus, nothing but a Blue Water Navy can achieve that effectively.
