September 19. 2009
NEW DELHI:
In an apparent attempt to counter China’s growing sway in the strategically important Indian Ocean region, India has signed a bilateral pact with the Maldives, in which the two countries have agreed to bolster defence co-operation that is officially aimed at fortifying the security of the tiny archipelago.
Under the agreement,
India will set up a sensitive radar network across the Maldives’ 26 atolls, which will be monitored by the Indian military.
The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, said last week that “[our] partner and excellent neighbour, India, has stood by Maldives during trying times”.
Brushing aside speculation that India will build naval bases in the Maldives or that New Delhi wants to interfere in its internal affairs, Mr Nasheed said:
“India is not trying to influence us. It is we who asked India to provide the radars, apart from seeking co-operation on other security matters.”
But analysts have hinted that India has a big stake in military co-operation with the Maldives.
Siddharth Srivastava, a New Delhi-based India-China relationship expert, said that
for some time India had been considering the possibility of “a naval base and a listening post in the Maldives to contain Beijing’s growing muscle” in the region.
Last month, when the Indian defence minister, AK Antony, visited Male, the Maldivian capital, accompanied by a high powered Indian military delegation that included two top navy officials, details about the installation of the radar network across the Maldives was discussed and a pact for co-operation was signed.
At the end of Mr Antony’s three-day visit, reports in Maldivian newspapers said that the two sides had discussed the threat of terrorism in the region, among other security-related subjects.
The Indian defence ministry described the co-operation pact between New Delhi and Male as “natural between two good friends and equal partners”, while a ministry spokesman said India and the Maldives had agreed on a “series of measures, to step up defence co-operation”.
Explaining part of the deal, Mr Antony said the Maldivian authorities had expressed concerns over the “crucial tasks of safeguarding and protecting their vast exclusive economic zone while stating its need to develop and enhance maritime surveillance and aerial mobility capabilities”.
Mr Nasheed said last week that the
installation of some of the Indian radars across 10 atolls was already in progress. As many commentators in the Maldivian media accused the radar plan as Indian encroachment on the Maldives’ sovereignty,
Mr Nasheed said the defence engagement with India was mostly in the interest of the Maldives.
The president responded by saying massive poaching of coral and illegal commercial fishing by foreign trawlers taking place in Maldivian waters has had a “deleterious” impact on the country’s marine life and with India’s help the Maldives would curb such illegal activities.
Sources inside the Indian defence ministry also sought to allay fears within the Maldives – which does not have a navy of its own – and pointed out that
Indian navy and coastguard warships would patrol the pirate-infested waters around the country and that the deal will also help India secure a significant part of its own territory, including the Andaman and Nicobar chains of islands.
Mr Srivastava said New Delhi had for some years been looking to set up a base in the Maldives, also in an effort to thwart a possible seaborne terror attack on India, as occurred last year in Mumbai.
“The Maldives being a Muslim country, India is wary about the influence that Pakistan may exert, including the possibility of infiltration by terror cells to launch attacks in India, as has happened in Bangladesh,” said Mr Srivastava.
Recently the administration of US President Barack Obama identified the Maldives as vulnerable to terrorists and he issued a pledge to provide military equipment and services to the country.
One day after Mr Obama issued the pledge, Robert Blake, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, who is a former ambassador to the Maldives, said there were “terrorists that come through the Maldives – that transit through the Maldives.
“They face a particular challenge in terms of maintaining the ability to monitor what’s going on in their seas. They also sit astride some of the major sea-lanes in the world. So, it’s very important that they have the ability to monitor activity,” Mr Blake told Indian media.
However, most analysts see India’s military positioning in the Maldives as a furtherance of its long-term military deterrence goals against China.
In Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Baluchistan and Sri Lanka’s southern tip of Hambantota, China has been developing deep-water ports. In Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal too, it is helping to develop ports and other infrastructure projects.
India is concerned about China’s “string of pearls” strategy – a phrase used by western security experts to describe the way China is encircling India by establishing pockets of military and diplomatic influence in the countries surrounding India.
Sujan Dutta, a security analyst for the Telegraph newspaper in India, believes that just as China is doing, India is aiming to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region and an Indian base in the Maldives is a move in that direction.
“This is how New Delhi hopes to sell the idea of a listening post in Addu Atoll to Male: You have concerns over your environmentally fragile exclusive economic zone and about patrolling and policing your far-flung islands, some of which are uninhabited. And we, the Indian navy, are the ‘regional stabilising force’ in the Indian Ocean,” he said.
India seals bilateral pact with Maldives - The National Newspaper
