Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sunil Lanba has said that Maldives presently is a challenge and that the government in Maldives is more inclined towards China.
Replying to a question following his speech on the theme ‘Role of the Indian Navy in the changing security environment’ at the ‘Vimarsh dialogue’ at the Vivekananda International Foundation, a leading think tank in New Delhi, the Navy Chief said, “Maldives is a challenge at the moment. The present government in Maldives is more inclined towards China.
The Constitution has been tweaked and some islands have been given access for development to the Chinese. There is no news at the moment of any listening post in the Maldives. Some development is going on. We will have to wait and watch. We had an EEZ patrol which we regularly do which just finished last week. The last one previously was called off by the Maldivian government which recommenced. We continue to work with the Maldivian government.”
Admiral Lanba’s speech clocked less than 28 minutes but he touched upon a broad range of issues ranging from India’s maritime heritage, maritime domain awareness, the Prime Minister’s vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), challenges posed by piracy, maritime terrorism, indigenization, technology transfer, ship building, submarines and the future of women in the Indian Navy.
The Navy Chief said, “The key features of our security environment is that it is dynamic and uncertain. We are living through a period of great power transition where the leading global powers appear competitors or locked in a complex interplay across the domain, be it military, technology, eco climate and many more issues.
The great power politics has been made more complex by the rise of regional powers. The ongoing third wave of globalisation is unprecedented both in space and intensity. The scale of balance of power that we had tipped in our favour for many decades is now changing. The rapid growth of the Chinese Navy is readily apparent.”
Admiral Lanba drew attention to the deployment of Chinese Naval ships which have increased manifold since October 2008. “They have set up their first overseas base in Djibouti. These developments are sure indicators of changes in the maritime domain. Over the last few decades, we are experiencing rapid increase in diversity and scale of maritime security challenges.”
He said, “Amongst the various types of terrorism prevalent today, the use of sea for State-sponsored terrorism has caught our focus. 26/11 kind of incident is just one form of maritime terrorism takes. Maritime piracy, human and drug trafficking, vagaries of climate change, illegal unreported and unregulated fishing have kept several maritime forces constantly engaged.
These security challenges have a hybrid, non-state character. For instance, we had an instance of apprehending a ship registered in Panama, carrying Indian crew, carrying contraband from Gwadar to India via Abu Dhabi. Often the flag of vessel, the port of loading and unloading, the origin of cargo and nationality of crew lead to different directions. Real problem starts after apprehending ship because there is no clarity about the legal jurisdiction, authority and penalty. We had a live case of a combined action in 2011 between the Coast Guard and the Navy, we caught a ship of 120 Somali pirates. ‘’
Dwelling upon challenges posed by piracy, the Navy Chief said, “There is no definition of piracy in the Indian Penal Code. We had a major challenge on how to handle these 120 people on board. They are still there in our jails. The system of governance in our country is that there is only one police station on each coast- on the west coast is Mumbai and on the east coast is Kolkata. This is an issue that needs to be looked at by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
Elaborating upon self-reliance and indigenisation, the Navy Chief said, “The entire steel required to build warships and submarines is now made within the country. It is a major achievement and that is one of the reasons for the delay of IAC 1 also because we took time to indigenize the steel that has gone into making that ship. All underwater sensors are entirely indigenous.
Majority of radars are now made within the country through technology transfer or own indigenously developed radars- weapons also. We have a design bureau which has designed nuclear submarines but we still need some handholding there on getting the design validated. We work with partners within the country, both private and public to make sub systems and other equipment which goes into submarines.”
To a question that the DTTI has not really taken off, Admiral Lanba said, “I am quite confident that they are willing to share the technologies in what we are looking for. In the aircraft carrier programme, they are willing to help is design the form and fit of the aircraft carrier also. I don’t think, there is any technology denial in the aircraft carrier programme.”
Replying to a question on the Quad, the Chief of Naval Staff said, “I don’t think there is need for a military dimension to the Quad. There are other avenues in the Quad to discuss it.”
Admiral Lanba gave a reassuring message of firm preparedness by asserting, “We are a Navy capable of building high end platforms such as aircraft carriers, nuclear as well as conventional submarines. The utility of the carrier in the current global security environment is increasing by the day. Indian Navy is well poised for today and tomorrow. Strategic roadmap that we follow keeps us prepared at all times for ensuring peace as well as winning war should that become inevitable.”