Click here to read about Malabar Exercise
What is the issue?
The Malabar naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal is seen as a maritime response to China’s aggression in Dokalam.
Why India’s plan might not succeed?
- Modern-day trading nations regard the oceans as a shared global common, with equal opportunity rights for all user states.
- Unless a sea-space is a site of overlapping claims (Ex. South China Sea) or a contested enclave in a geopolitically troubled spot (Ex. Persian Gulf), no coastal state can deny another the use of the high seas.
- This balance only changes during war.
- During peace-time operations, the maritime forces enjoy assured access to the seas that lie beyond national territorial waters.
- Given the Beijing’s key role in the geopolitics and economics of the Indian Ocean region, a plan to deny its warships entry into India’s surrounding seas is unlikely to succeed.
What India can do?
- India could now resort to a strategy of counter-power projection by expanding the scope of its naval deployments in the South China Sea.
- Indian Navy could plan to use the South China Sea’s geopolitically sensitive spaces for the strategic power projection.
- Such a strategy is bound to have a deterrent effect on China’s naval posture in the Indian Ocean region.
- After an arbitral tribunal invalidated many of China’s historical rights within the nine-dash line, Beijing has been extremely cautious about perceived challenges to its authority.
- This vulnerability must be taken advantage of by India.
- The Indian Navy must plan for counter-presence in China’s near-seas, where Beijing cannot prove a territorial infringement, yet feel the pinch of a perceived violation of its political sphere of influence.
Source: Live Mint
