Ocean of opportunity

While covering the recent tragic terror attacks in Peshawar, Sydney, Paris, the ISIS war in Iraq as well as the Pakistani terror boat incident 185 miles off Porbandar on January 1, the Indian media has had little time to focus on the importance of the first ever visit by a US President to India as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations. There has been talk of a defence co-operation agreement and kickstarting the civil nuclear energy agreement that has been held up because of America’s reservations about the Indian Nuclear Liability Bill.

The Americans have made a list of military items for which they are willing to transfer technology. India expects American help in ensuring that Pakistan’s declaration of fighting homegrown terror includes Punjab-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and it hopes that large-scale American investment will help kickstart the economy. Though there have been reports about America’s willingness to invest $41 billion, which is welcome, it is not really enough given the $1 trillion needed to create better infrastructure as well as millions of jobs. While US President Barack Obama’s visit is likely to result in some mutually beneficial agreements, there are a few critical issues that demand urgent attention.

I have been involved in some informal Track-2 discussions with the Americans and my personal assessment is that the Americans see the world largely from their point of view, i.e. their trade and global strategic interests, including a need to counter China’s growing blue-water naval capabilities in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The Asia-Pacific is an area of interest for the US as the Chinese Navy is busy sabre-rattling to enforce China’s maritime claims in the South and East China Seas. America, despite its growing self-sufficiency in domestically produced shale oil, has a vested interest in keeping the Indian Ocean from becoming a “Chinese lake”.

India, which relies on the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans for 90 per cent of its trade and also has a disputed land border with nuclear China and Pakistan, has a vested interest in ensuring freedom of safe navigation in the three oceans.

Hence, it is not surprising that of all the exercises which the Indian military does with over a dozen foreign counterparts, the most complex ones are between the navies of India and US. In addition, officers of the Indian Coast Guard regularly undertake numerous training courses at various US Coast Guard institutions.

Given the dependence of both nations on the seas for their national prosperity, I hope Mr Obama’s visit results in some landmark agreements to further strategic cooperation in the maritime domain. But these discussions cannot begin with the Americans asking for naval bases in sovereign Indian territories.

Given recent civilian air crashes at sea (the Malaysian and the AirAsia incidents), growing maritime terror and piracy, highest priority should be an agreement to share real-time maritime domain awareness (MDA) about everything which sails or flies in the Indian and western Pacific oceans and eastern Atlantic ocean.

Regular exercises involving the navies and coast guards of India, the US and other Asian nations, including Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia need to be conducted annually to counter piracy, maritime terror, maritime pollution, and for search and rescue operations.

Another area where American assistance would be of great value is submarine rescue. The US Navy is the world leader in the complex art and science of rescuing crews of sunken submarines from great depths (up to 1,000 metres). India, with an ageing submarine fleet, has one vintage submarine rescue vessel with very limited submarine rescue capability (from depths up to only 150 metres).

In 1997-98, India and the US signed an agreement whereby the Americans would fly in a mini rescue submarine to save Indian submariners in case of an accident. The time has now come for America to offer and India to purchase two modern submarine rescue systems (one each for the east and west coasts).

The media has reported that the Indian Navy has a programme for building six indigenous tactical nuclear submarines (SSN). Given our past record with the strategic nuclear submarine INS Arihant, which commenced sea trials in December 2014 after being under construction for over 16 years, it would take over 30 years to design and build Indian SSNs.

To meet our immediate requirements, the Indian government should look at asking the Americans to give us four to six Virginia-class SSNs on a 30-year lease. The Americans are presently building over 30 Virginia-class SSNs at the rate of two units annually. These leased SSNs would enable the Indian Navy to track and deter Chinese naval warships and submarines that are known to operate in the vast stretches of the Indian Ocean.

Since the maritime domain also encompasses space (the Indian Navy has a dedicated communications satellite, while the US Navy has numerous communications and spy satellites in operations) and cyberspace, the two nations can begin co-operation in these two fields also.

Last year, Mr Obama had declared that the US was ready to co-operate in making the Indian economy a $10 trillion economy. Media-reported studies indicate that this is achievable by 2034 if the Indian economy grows at over eight per cent. Mr Obama’s visit could be the beginning of a new chapter in Indo-US relations, and strategic maritime co-operation could be a big part of it.

The writer retired as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam.