Action Along the Coast

Aditya Kakkar

As India prepared to usher in its 69^th Republic Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed satisfaction at the growth of bilateral relations including in the fields of maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region in a bilateral meeting on the eve of ASEAN-India Commemorative on January 25.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc

According to Indian news agencies, India and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will perhaps also discuss holding naval exercises near the Strait of Malacca. Recently, the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the United States had elevated its engagement with India as part of its effort for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

While the ‘Indo’ in ‘Indo-Pacific’ refers to the Indian Ocean and not India, nevertheless, it is essential that India stays true to its 2015’s revamped maritime doctrine, ‘Ensuring Securing Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy.’ The document clarified India’s intent to be a ‘net security provider’ in its areas of interest. It defined the concept, as “…the state of actual security available in an area, upon balancing prevailing threats, inherent risks and rising challenges in the maritime environment, against the ability to monitor, contain and counter all of these.”

In 2017, India and Singapore concluded an overarching bilateral agreement for naval cooperation which gave India access to Singapore’s Changi naval base at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca. While the above examples are illustrative of India’s maritime ambitions and global expectations, the Indian Navy cannot fulfil its roles without sufficient capabilities and real-time intelligence.

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The Indian Navy has an unenviable task of prot