A Maritime Stretch: Modi in Southeast Asia

A Maritime Stretch: Modi in Southeast Asia

News:
1.  Harsh V. Pant, Professor of International Relations at King’s College London has analyse India’s maritime opportunities in the South East Asian Region.

Important Facts:

1. Indonesia is geo-politically positioned at the centre of the Indo-Pacific and is of a great asset to India.
2. India’s “Act East” policy and Indonesia’s “Global Maritime Fulcrum” both hope to increase maritime collaboration in Southeast Asia. Both the countries need to complement and align one another’s vision of a regional order.
3. Both and India and Indonesia are concerned about increasing Chinese presence in the eastern Indian Ocean.
4. China is increasingly taking an aggressive stand on the South China Sea issue. Indonesia wants to balance this by strengthening strategic partnership with India.
5. Natuna Sea is an area of contention between China and Indonesia.
6. Indonesian government has offered India to help in the development of its Sabang port and an economic zone.
7. Sabang port:

• It is located at the mouth of Strait of Malacca and is 100 nautical miles from the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• It is strategically located. It would help Indian Navy to be at the forefront and supervise movements in the Straits of Malacca.
• It could provide an alternative to China’s BRI initiative.
• A cruise tourism circuit has been proposed between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sabang.

8. Also Straits of Malacca, Lombok and Sunda are other strategic point where India’s interests lie to protect its Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs).

9. At present, ties between both the countries are limited to

• Anti-piracy patrols
• Search and rescue exercises
• Joint hydrographic exploration.

10. During PM visit both the countries are expected to sign a Comprehensive Defence Cooperation Agreement which is similar to the one India signed with France. The benefits of this include:

• Stronger maritime security partnership.
• give India access to naval bases in Lampung on the Sunda Strait, and Denpasar and Banyuwangi on the Lombok Strait.
• It would help expand the Indian Navy’s operations in the eastern Indian Ocean.

11. India could also push for becoming a part of the Malacca Strait Patrols Programme. It would offer the following benefits to India:

• Strengthen India’s maritime knowledge of the region.
• The eyes-in-the-sky component would give an opportunity for India to use its maritime surveillance aircraft to jointly patrol the region.
• India can monitor Chinese naval movement in these regions.
• India would get access to the Jayapura naval base in West Papua. It would complement India’s access to French naval bases in French Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Southern Pacific.

12. Indonesia is expected to negotiate and delimit the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) shared by both countries in the Andaman Sea.

13. According to author, India and Indonesia could consider cooperating in the following areas:

• Partnership in tracking commercial cargo ships at strategic choke points.
• Economic cooperation
• Collaboration in defence industries and maritime training and education

14. Closer logistics partnership with Singapore, Australia and Indonesia would enhance India’s position as a regional net security provider.