Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Admiral Jonathan Greenert inspects Indian navy guard of honour ( Image credits- Flickr / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Peter Harris Many analysts believe that the international system is sliding towards multipolarity, a world in which no single great power is in a position to dominate its peers. But among those who subscribe to this view, there is some debate over just how the coming multipolar order will operate. Will great powers work together to uphold order? Will they instead descend into military and economic competition with one another? Or can planet Earth support multiple world orders, co-existent yet separate, each under the sway of a particular great power? There are no iron-clad answers to these questions. Yet current geopolitics does, perhaps, allow for a glimpse into the future. In particular, the international politics of the Indian Ocean can be considered something of a microcosm of multipolarity in the twenty-first century.

Credits- Flickr / MEA Official image, Government of India " In International relations, there are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies, but only permanent national interests":- So they say in international relations. Nothing exemplifies this more than the emerging geopolitics of Asia-Pacific. There is indeed a tectonic  shift in relations and serious realignment taking place as we speak.  History of Indian Foreign relations After gaining independence, India chose the path of non alignment with a tilt to the socialistic policies emphasizing left leaning politics. This ensured that India cultivated closer relations with the USSR which for the time payed rich dividends for India. Russia was the chief source from which India procured vital and high tech weapon systems and also the USSR had been instrumental in protecting Indian national interests in international forums like the United Nations. They also helped India at the time of national crisis like the

Image credits- Indian navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Abhijit Singh As India and Australia prepare to embark on their first-ever bilateral naval interaction in the Bay of Bengal this month, reports suggest the exercises will focus on anti-submarine warfare (ASW). This is being seen as evidence of a growing regional consensus on the threat posed by Chinese undersea operations in the Asian littorals. Australia is reported to be sending a Lockheed Martin’s P-3 anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft, a Collins-class submarine, and ASW frigates, while India will be deploying a P-8 long-range anti-submarine aircraft, along with other surface assets. Over the past two years, China’s submarine deployments in the Indian Ocean have been a source of worry for Indian analysts. Since May this year, when a Chinese Yuan-class submarine visited Karachi, there has been growing unease in New Delhi over the possibility of greater Chinese submarine presence in India’s maritime neighbor

INS Vikramaditya being inducted into the Indian Navy (Source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- C.Raja Mohan On a March 2015 trip to Seychelles and Mauritius, Narendra Modi outlined a bold framework that overturned the political approach that India had taken towards the Indian Ocean for half a century.  Beginning in the late 1960s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked all major powers to withdraw from the Indian Ocean out of concern for great power rivalry. This approach fit with India’s self-perception as a non-aligned and Third World state, and its desire to be economically self reliant and to distance itself from the British Raj, which had long been the central security provider in the Indian Ocean. The context which gave rise to the Gandhi approach began to change in the 1990s, as India embarked on a policy of economic globalization and ended its military isolation. India’s new maritime imperatives did not, however, tran

Image credits- USNI Source- The National Interest Author- Claude Rakisits In the last few months Pakistan’s Government has made a number of decisions that have drawn the country even further into China’s geostrategic orbit. And although China and Pakistan have had a long and fruitful relationship for well over 50 years, it was the launch of the 2,900 km China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during a visit to Pakistan by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April that qualitatively changed the relationship. This $46 billion CPEC project, which involves the construction of roads, railroads and power plants over a 15-year period, comes on top of other previous important Pakistan–China agreements in the military, energy and infrastructure fields. The geostrategic importance of CPEC is bolstered by some earlier bilateral agreements. First, in April China was granted 40-year operation rights to the port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Beijing i

INS Visakhapatnam ( Image credits- Internet Image) As India launches it's newest Destroyer, the stealthy INS Visakhapatnam, it is time to reflect on the quiet transformation that is taking place for the Indian navy.Indian Navy is in the process of inducting several ships that is highly capable that will see the Indian navy transforming itself to a young and a highly capable force having the capability to project force far away from it's shores achieving a truly blue water capability. OVERVIEW The legacy of the Indian navy dates back to the British raj when as part of the Royal Navy, the Indian navy played a crucial role during the second world war. Soon after the independence, the Royal Indian Navy was partitioned into two parts and assets divided between India and Pakistan. Those were transformative years for the navy. After India became a republic, the navy came to be known as the Indian Navy, dropping the Royal prefix. At this time, the ships of the Indian Navy

Chinese Type-92 Nuclear Submarine (Image credits- USNI) Source- The Diplomat Author- P.K Ghosh The deployment of a Chinese nuclear submarine – presumably a Type 093 Shang-class – as part of the anti-piracy patrol of two ships and a supply vessel operating off the Gulf of Aden has set alarm bells ringing loudly in the Indian Navy. The implications of such a strategically significant move are simply enormous, as analysts try to decipher the real reason behind deploying such a platform in the region. Submarines are not appropriate platforms for dealing with pirates or with piracy. The Somali pirates are known to use small craft known as skiffs individually or as part of swarm tactics to attack ships, returning to larger mother ships nearby. This gives them large operating ranges. Such highly manoeuvrable crafts can hardly be chased by relatively slow moving submarines or torpedoed from underwater, making submarines quite superfluous to anti-piracy operations. Apart from

INS Mysore -D60 ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Jhinuk Chowdhury If you believe the hype, India is intensifying its ocean diplomacy to counter the growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation visit to Sri Lanka, Seychelles, and Mauritius in March has been seen in this light. But that doesn’t explain what’s really happening. The power tectonics in the region are not between India and China, but are a result of Beijing hedging against Washington’s presence in the region. In the Indian Ocean, Delhi is increasingly aligning with the role that the U.S. wants it to play — that of a “net security provider.” The Indian Ocean bears two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments, one-third of its bulk cargo, and half of its container traffic, and serves as a key trade route between East Asia and Europe. Both the U.S. and China have high commercial stakes here. While the U.S. hopes to secure its trade routes