Africa needs not only maritime administration frameworks and the local capacity to enforce regulations, but also a model for sustainable blue-economy development that does not result in the destruction of its natural maritime habitat. In this, it can use India’s assistance.
As India reorients its maritime posture to cater to the new realities of Asia, there is a realisation that regional maritime stability is increasingly susceptible to growing power imbalances.
We recommend that the histories of the 1965 and 1971 wars be revised, updated and reprinted as proper official versions with the correct title and logo.
Nothing conveys strategic intent as effectively as the large conventional warship whose mere presence can provide a decisive psychological advantage in strategic scenarios.
By engaging GCC navies through joint exercises, port calls, and training programmes, the Navy has successfully created a durable template of maritime relations in the Western Indian Ocean.
A growing Sino-Russian-Pakistani maritime nexus in the IOR poses a challenge to India’s influence in the Indian Ocean and heralds a potential change in the Asian balance of maritime power.
A dissatisfied military is not in the interest of India which has to contend with multiple internal and external security issues. The nation at large and the political leadership must be alive to the prevailing sentiments and act appropriately.
China’s new military strategy as it applies to the Indian Ocean is not a matter of a minor shift in the balance of maritime power, but one that impacts India’s capacity and will to impose a deterrent cost.
The new version of US maritime strategy candidly recognises China’s maritime expansion and territorial claims as a source of regional unrest, but stops short of recognising the A2/AD challenge even as it pronounces “all-domain access” as a strategic prerequisite.
The government’s ‘Act East Policy’ needs to legitimise the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept. Interestingly, only a few months after the release of the 2013 White Paper, Australia released a Country Strategy Document on India which identified the Indian Navy as possessing the most potential for a close maritime partnership
Reenergising India-Africa Maritime Relations
Africa needs not only maritime administration frameworks and the local capacity to enforce regulations, but also a model for sustainable blue-economy development that does not result in the destruction of its natural maritime habitat. In this, it can use India’s assistance.