NAVY STEPS UP ACTION TO PROTECT SHIPPING
Footage of commandos hunting pirates after Arabian Sea attack shows India’s desire to project itself as responsible power, analysts say
Dramatic drone footage showing Indian commandos hunting pirates after an attack in the Arabian Sea illustrates New Delhi’s “significant” expansion of a muscular maritime force reflecting global ambitions, analysts say.
The commandos, deployed this month from an Indian-built warship after an attempted hijacking of a merchant bulk carrier, are part of a major increase of naval forces in seas where rival neighbour China has already long expanded its reach.
“It’s significant given the geopolitical context” and the aggressive “use of naval assets”, said Uday Bhaskar, head of the New Delhi-based Society for Policy Studies think tank.
In recent years Beijing has negotiated infrastructure deals with countries around the Indian Ocean as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, including Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Djibouti, where it opened its first overseas military base in 2017, raising concerns among Indian officials.
Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expected to be re-elected later this year, is looking to raise the global heft of India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, which last year displaced China as the most populous country.
“As India continues to rise in the international great power hierarchy, it envisions to project itself as a leading and responsible power,” said Don McLain Gill of De La Salle University in the Philippines.
Its naval deployment is part of its “desire to play a larger and more proactive role as a responsible security and development partner”, Gill said.
Indian combat operations against pirates are not new.
The navy has been deployed continuously off Somalia since 2008 as piracy surged, bombarding and sinking pirate “mother ships” ranging from just off India’s coast to the Gulf of Aden, boarding boats by helicopter and capturing dozens of gunmen.
But the navy’s deployment in December of a far larger force – including three guided-missile destroyers and P-8I reconnaissance aircraft to “maintain a deterrent presence” after a string of shipping attacks – marks a rapid ramping up of forces.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh – speaking at the launch of India’s latest own-built warship, joining an indigenous-made fleet including an aircraft carrier and submarines – vowed shipping would be protected “from the sea to the heights of the sky”.
The response followed a December 23 drone attack on the MV Chem Pluto tanker 370km off the coast of India, which Washington blamed on Iran – claims Tehran dubbed “worthless”.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have launched scores of Red Sea attacks targeting Israeli-linked vessels in response to Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is also backed by Tehran.
India, which has close trade ties with Iran, has not joined the US-led force battling the Houthis.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said US and British forces had launched air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in a “defensive action” following the recent attacks on Red Sea shipping.
But with international naval forces diverted north into the Red Sea – sparking fears of resurgent pirates exploiting the gap with the first successful case of Somali piracy since 2017 recorded in December – New Delhi remains worried about the impact on trade.
One report, by New Delhibased Research and Information System for Developing Countries, warned India could lose US$30 billion in exports this year – a six per cent drop – if more shipping has to divert via South Africa.
But India was taking “very proactive action” to ensure pirates “don’t venture out into the Indian Ocean region”, Admiral Hari Kumar, chief of naval staff, told reporters last week.
On January 5, after the Liberian-flagged MV Lila Norfolk reported an attempted hijacking off Somalia’s coast, an Indian destroyer and surveillance aircraft tracked the vessel giving a “forceful warning”, the navy said.
By the time the elite commando force boarded for so-called “sanitisation” operations, the pirates had fled – but the footage was shared widely by the navy as evidence of their “swift response” capabilities.