India, the Indian Ocean and the Indo – pacific
Shri Rajnath Singh, Raksha Mantri inaugurated the regional office of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Kuala Lumpur. This will be the new hub for the Indian defence company’s engagements with Southeast Asian countries.
It may be noted that India has become quite open regarding its intention to help the Southeast Asian countries in the disputed South China Sea.
India has started supplying modern weapons and equipment to some of the countries like Philippines and Vietnam to enable them to defend their sovereignty and sovereign rights against China’s increasing infringement.
May be soon others may follow and there may be sale of Indian Tejas combat jets. India may also establish a naval base in the region.
While India continues to progressively solidify its position in Southeast Asia it is still not at par with the US or Japan, but is catching up rapidly through its Act East Policy.
It had initiated multi-dimensional comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN Countries in 1991 itself but major changes have taken place only since 2014.
Since 2014, New Delhi has pursued a more proactive, confident, and multi-pronged policy approach towards Southeast Asia that have increased from limited cooperation in some social and political areas to expanding partnerships in the realm of trade, security and defence. It is now on its way to broaden the scope and nature of its strategic relations with Southeast Asian countries. In fact this Security role of India has been warmly welcomed by ASEAN and appreciated by both USA and Japan.
Starting with Vietnam, In 2016 India raised its bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. The increasing level of mutual strategic trust between New Delhi and Hanoi since then, paved the way for their first bilateral army-to-army exercise in 2018.
Next the Raksha Mantri and his Vietnamese Defence Minister General Phan Van Giang signed the Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 22030. Also a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by both ministers on mutual logistics support.
This MoU permits both militaries to utilise each other’s bases for repair and replenishment of supplies. Such an agreement is the first which Vietnam has forged with any state. Recently India gifted its indigenously built missile corvette warship, INS Kirpan to the Vietnamese Navy in June 2023 to enhance its maritime security capacity amid concerns in the South China Sea.
India’s security ties with Indonesia have also made significant progress in last 10 years. In 2018, New Delhi and Jakarta elevated their relations and unveiled a new bilateral naval exercise called Samudera Shakti, which includes a critical war-fighting component to the strategic partnership.
Furthermore, both sides are also in talks to bolster maritime connectivity cooperation vis-à-vis India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Indonesia’s island of Aceh.
The Indian Navy has also extended its operational reach into the Western Pacific, and towards this Indonesia has been accommodating of India’s increasing military presence in Southeast Asia. This is important given that over two decades ago, Jakarta was increasingly wary of New Delhi’s expanding naval capabilities due to a lack of mutual understanding.
Now both countries display their willingness to consistently forge stronger security ties, particularly in the maritime domain, to ensure the stability of the Indo-Pacific.
Coming to Philippines, in the past engagements between Manila and New Delhi were mostly confined to commerce, culture, and science, and education. Now both have achieved close strategic relations in the field of defence cooperation, including naval drills in the South China Sea, the sale of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, and enhancing bilateral maritime cooperation.
Overall in the region India and ASEAN now have a more comprehensive strategic partnership and have held their first joint maritime drills in the South China Sea.
Thus India has been constantly demonstrating its commitment towards facilitating proactive security engagements with countries in the Indo Pacific.
The rise of India and the security desire of Southeast Asian countries towards friendship with India will give it a a larger security role in the greater Indo-Pacific to effectively pursue its great power interests but will also provide Southeast Asian countries full peace to pursue trade and commerce as was the case in the times of Mauryas, Cholas and the Pallavas dynasties in Bharatvarsa.
