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4-Nation Naval Exercise May Presage New Alliance
By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI
Australia, India, Japan and the United States will join in a Bay of Bengal naval exercise in September, hinting at progress in negotiations for a possible four-way alliance.
The first high-level discussions of such an alliance came in May, when assistant secretaries of state and equivalents from the four countries met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum gathering in Manila, Indian Foreign Ministry sources said.
The meeting was held quietly, but not secretly; just days before, China issued demarches to all four participants, formally asking about their intentions.
Singapore will also play in the exercises, which will include submarines, naval aircraft and 20 ships, including the U.S. aircraft carriers Nimitz and Kitty Hawk and the Indian carrier Viraat.
The exercise, announced July 11 during the visit here by Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, will be part of a joint maritime-security initiative for the Asia-Pacific region.
The visit also yielded a bilateral agreement to share classified information on regional security, including maritime issues, one Indian Defence Ministry official said.
One analyst said the alliance talk indicates that Indias strategic policies have changed.
The origins of this shift can be traced to several earlier periods, the latest being the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which is what triggers the search for new partnerships, said Swaran Singh, an associate professor of disarmament studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here. The look east policy, for instance, was one offshoot of it, and Indias rapprochement with the U.S., [or Israel] another major offshoot.
G.V.C. Naidu, a senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), said any four-way agreement will not resemble older alliances like NATO.
The age of military alliances is over, and hence there is no question of India joining any military alliance, Naidu said. It will be coalitions of the willing, or convenience, based on certain common agendas. India will be part of that as long as it perceives its interests are served.
Naidu also said the alliance would not be aimed simply at confronting China.
It is a gathering of democracies which share certain common values, interests and concerns, he said.
But Beijing is watching the progress closely, and should be given enough information to mollify it, another analyst here said.
China will be looking at this cooperative arrangement with some suspicion, said Rahul Bohnsle, a retired Indian Army briga-dier. A sensible policy needs to take into account Chinese apprehensions and seek to dispel any concerns through dialogue. A Sino-Indian cold war in the future may not be in Indias interest for it will heighten regional tensions even as India is attempting to create a South Asian community.
India has sought publicly and privately to assuage Beijing, said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research.
But when China pursues actions overtly designed to contain India, does it bother to explain its actions to New Delhi? Rather, it determinedly presses ahead with steps antithetical to Indian interests, including a string-of-pearls strategy that aims to pin down India, said Chellaney.
Still another analyst said China should not be worried about naval exercises, for Beijing is planning similar war games with the Australian and New Zealand navies.
Granted, there is all-round concern about the build-up of Chinese military might, but these exercises cannot be seen as a direct reaction to that; they are only a natural progression in the changing nature of relations among countries that have a stake in maintaining peace and security in the region, IDSA associate fellow Cherian Samuel said.
India and the United States agreed in 2005 to cooperate on defense matters, a lesser tie than Washingtons strategic arrangements with Australia and Japan.
Indian Defence Ministry sources said U.S. defense companies will in future form ties with Indian firms, and Indian forces will replace most of their aging Russian arms with U.S., Israeli and other Western arms.
E-mail: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2904666
By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI
Australia, India, Japan and the United States will join in a Bay of Bengal naval exercise in September, hinting at progress in negotiations for a possible four-way alliance.
The first high-level discussions of such an alliance came in May, when assistant secretaries of state and equivalents from the four countries met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum gathering in Manila, Indian Foreign Ministry sources said.
The meeting was held quietly, but not secretly; just days before, China issued demarches to all four participants, formally asking about their intentions.
Singapore will also play in the exercises, which will include submarines, naval aircraft and 20 ships, including the U.S. aircraft carriers Nimitz and Kitty Hawk and the Indian carrier Viraat.
The exercise, announced July 11 during the visit here by Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, will be part of a joint maritime-security initiative for the Asia-Pacific region.
The visit also yielded a bilateral agreement to share classified information on regional security, including maritime issues, one Indian Defence Ministry official said.
One analyst said the alliance talk indicates that Indias strategic policies have changed.
The origins of this shift can be traced to several earlier periods, the latest being the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which is what triggers the search for new partnerships, said Swaran Singh, an associate professor of disarmament studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here. The look east policy, for instance, was one offshoot of it, and Indias rapprochement with the U.S., [or Israel] another major offshoot.
G.V.C. Naidu, a senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), said any four-way agreement will not resemble older alliances like NATO.
The age of military alliances is over, and hence there is no question of India joining any military alliance, Naidu said. It will be coalitions of the willing, or convenience, based on certain common agendas. India will be part of that as long as it perceives its interests are served.
Naidu also said the alliance would not be aimed simply at confronting China.
It is a gathering of democracies which share certain common values, interests and concerns, he said.
But Beijing is watching the progress closely, and should be given enough information to mollify it, another analyst here said.
China will be looking at this cooperative arrangement with some suspicion, said Rahul Bohnsle, a retired Indian Army briga-dier. A sensible policy needs to take into account Chinese apprehensions and seek to dispel any concerns through dialogue. A Sino-Indian cold war in the future may not be in Indias interest for it will heighten regional tensions even as India is attempting to create a South Asian community.
India has sought publicly and privately to assuage Beijing, said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research.
But when China pursues actions overtly designed to contain India, does it bother to explain its actions to New Delhi? Rather, it determinedly presses ahead with steps antithetical to Indian interests, including a string-of-pearls strategy that aims to pin down India, said Chellaney.
Still another analyst said China should not be worried about naval exercises, for Beijing is planning similar war games with the Australian and New Zealand navies.
Granted, there is all-round concern about the build-up of Chinese military might, but these exercises cannot be seen as a direct reaction to that; they are only a natural progression in the changing nature of relations among countries that have a stake in maintaining peace and security in the region, IDSA associate fellow Cherian Samuel said.
India and the United States agreed in 2005 to cooperate on defense matters, a lesser tie than Washingtons strategic arrangements with Australia and Japan.
Indian Defence Ministry sources said U.S. defense companies will in future form ties with Indian firms, and Indian forces will replace most of their aging Russian arms with U.S., Israeli and other Western arms.
E-mail: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2904666
Its in India's interest to let the US think that we are playing ball while they hand over the IO to India on a silver platter. A game of wits.
