{"id":8877,"date":"2020-07-08T16:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T11:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=8877"},"modified":"2020-07-08T16:44:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T11:14:04","slug":"indian-ocean-international-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/indian-ocean-international-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Ocean & International Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Relevance: Prelims\/Mains: G.S paper II: International Relations:\u00a0<\/span>Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and\/or affecting India\u2019s interests<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n
\n

Context:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 In the wake of China\u2019s behaviour on our northern border, India needs to look carefully at other areas of potential conflict.<\/p>\n

The Indian Ocean is an obvious one. In his keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June 2018, our prime minister presented India\u2019s Indo-Pacific vision.It is rooted in our historical associations with this region, and our understanding of its seminal importance in building prosperity in this century.<\/p>\n

The clarity of our approach was captured thus: \u201cInclusiveness, openness and ASEAN centrality and unity, therefore, lie at the heart of the new Indo-Pacific. India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country.\u201d<\/p>\n

China and Indian Ocean:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\u2022 China is not a littoral state in the Indian Ocean. Nor, historically speaking, did it have a naval presence.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This by no means suggests that China did not play an important part in Indian Ocean trade.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It is to merely posit that such trade, especially beyond the Malacca Straits, was mainly carried on by Arab, Indian and Persian traders.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nonetheless, in today\u2019s context, China is the second largest economy and the world\u2019s largest trading nation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The sea-lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean are vital to her economy and security.<\/p>\n

\u2022 China should have equal access under international law and in accordance with international practice.<\/p>\n

\u2022 China could have been expected to welcome the Indo-Pacific approach which gives her both legitimacy and respect in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u2022 She has, instead, opted to undermine it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 China now alleges that this is an American-led plot to \u201ccontain\u201d China\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s \u201cMalacca Dilemma\u201d:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"china<\/p>\n

\u2022 After the founding of the People\u2019s Republic in 1949, China was initially focussed on the consolidation of the \u201chomeland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Its horizons broadened as its economy went global, and the consequent challenge was encapsulated by President Hu Jintao in November 2003 to party cadres as China\u2019s \u201cMalacca Dilemma\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 They imagined that others would block the Malacca Straits to \u201ccontain\u201d the Chinese.<\/p>\n

\u2022 From that point forward, China has strategised to dominate not just the Malacca Straits, but the ocean beyond it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The PLA Navy (PLAN) made its first operational deployment in the Gulf of Aden in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In December 2009 retired PLAN Admiral Yin Zhuo referred to a possible overseas base or facility.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In 2010 a China State Oceanic Administration report alluded to plans to build aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 By 2012 China was ready to make the move into the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A Maritime Rights and Interests Leading Group was established inside the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Report to the 18th Party Congress in the same year saw the first official reference to \u201cbuilding China into a sea-power nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The plan was presented as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in Jakarta in October 2013, carefully wrapped in terms of trade and finance, in order to disguise its dual purpose.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In May 2014 three Chinese researchers affiliated to the China Naval Research Institute laid out the real game-plan in their article, \u201cThe Strategic Scenario in the Indian Ocean and the Expansion of Chinese Naval Power\u201d.<\/p>\n

Challenges to the Chinese Plan:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Countering<\/p>\n

\u2022 Acknowledging that US hegemony and India\u2019s regional influence in the Indian Ocean posed challenges to the Chinese plan, the authors laid out the inherent deficiencies that China needed to overcome, namely that<\/p>\n

o it is not a littoral state;<\/p>\n

o its passage through key maritime straits could be easily blocked; and<\/p>\n

o the possibility of US-India cooperation against China.<\/p>\n

They suggested that these deficiencies might be overcome by:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 To carefully selecting sites to build ports \u2014 Djibouti, Gwadar, Hambantota, Sittwe and Seychelles were specifically named;<\/p>\n

\u2022 By conducting activities in a low-key manner to \u201creduce the military colour as much as possible\u201d; and<\/p>\n

\u2022 By not unnerving India and America by cooperating at first, then slowly penetrating into the Indian Ocean, beginning with detailed maritime surveys, ocean mapping, HADR, port construction and so on.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Chinese have moved precisely along those lines.<\/p>\n

Dual use:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 The official establishment continues to deny that the BRI has military or geo-strategic intent.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A Chinese scholar at Jiao Tong University has recently acknowledged that the dual-use ports are likely to support future projection of military power.<\/p>\n

\u2022 China has conveniently forgotten its assurance, in the Defence White Paper (1998) that she \u201cdoes not station any troops or set up any military bases in any foreign country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The PLA\u2019s new base in Djibouti is the prototype for more \u201clogistics\u201d facilities to come.<\/p>\n

\u2022 More port construction projects that are commercially unviable but have military possibilities, like Gwadar and Hambantota, are being offered to vulnerable countries.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chinese \u201ccivilian\u201d vessels routinely conduct surveys in the EEZ of littoral states.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In January 2020 the PLA Navy conducted tripartite naval exercises with Russia and Iran in the Arabian Sea. They have the largest warship building programme in the world.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Indo-Pacific idea might potentially derail their carefully crafted plans. It is inclusive, participative and evolving through open discussion; the Maritime Silk Road by contrast is a Chinese fait accompli.<\/p>\n

\u2022 After initially disparaging the idea, they now wish to cause alarm by raising fears about Great Power \u201cstrategic collision\u201d caused by the so-called American-led \u201ccontainment\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This is the classic Chinese ruse of deflecting attention from the real issue on hand, their efforts to dominate the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 It is important to look past their propaganda.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In September 2019, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said: \u201cWe are firmly against attempts to use the Indo-Pacific strategy as a tool to counter the BRI or even contain China\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 China still thinks in terms of balance of power while speaking about a Community with a Shared Future of Mankind.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It should re-consider its position and view the Indo-Pacific idea as an instrument for advancing common interests, and not make it a source of conflict or tension.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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