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DEFENCE: MARITIME COMMAND
Isles OF Influence
India sets up a major command in Andaman and Nicobar Islands
in an effort to monitor strategic trade routes, protect its waters and
thwart pirates and gun-runners
By Shishir Gupta
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Blue water: The ANC can monitor traffic bound for
the South China Sea
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After the 1857 War
of Independence, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands served as a convict settlement
colony for the British Raj. Spread over an area of 8,325 sq km in the
Bay of Bengal, these island territories have been known for exotic turtles
and virgin tropical forests. A tiny and remote speck on the vast Indian
canvas. But that's about to change. The islands may soon become a symbol
of Delhi's bid for the global stage with the Government clearing the decks
for a tri-service military command at Port Blair.
After the green signal from the Cabinet Committee
on Security (CCS), the Defence Ministry last month cleared the appointment
of the first commander-in-chief and other senior staff appointments of
the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC). The command, which will be headed
by the three-services in rotation, will function under the to-be-appointed
chief of defence staff. It will be directly responsible for military operations
in the Andaman and Nicobar theatre.
Although envisaged as a maritime surveillance
command, its significance lies in its location. The island territories
sit at the mouth of the Malacca Straits, which is the second-busiest sea
lane of communication (SLOC) in the world. Most of the ships approach
the straits through the 10 Degree Channel, which bisects the Andaman Islands
and the Great Nicobar Islands. Indira Point, the southernmost tip of India,
is actually separated by the Great Channel from Indonesia's strife-torn
Banda Aceh territory. This means that by setting up the ANC, India will
now have the capacity to protect and monitor sea traffic bound for the
South China Sea. According to a US National Defense University study,
more than 42.4 per cent (around $200 billion or Rs 9,20,000 crore) of
Japan's and 21.8 per cent (in excess of $100 billion) of China's exports
to the Gulf and Europe pass through the Malacca Straits. The sea lanes
are vital for India's energy security as it is also looking for oil and
gas supplies from Myanmar and Vietnam. The importance of the Malacca Straits,
which is roughly 500 miles long, 72 ft deep and 1.5 miles wide towards
its eastern end, can be gauged from the fact that the cost of India's
iron ore export to Japan will go up by 4 per cent if this channel is blocked.
With at least one crude-oil tanker passing through these straits every
30 minutes, the hike in the freight charges will be enormous in the worst-case
scenario. By creating an infrastructure for deployment of larger forces
at Port Blair, Delhi is sending a signal that its area of interests extends
up to the Malacca Straits.
Besides the force projection, at the heart of
the ANC creation is perhaps the Indian intention to secure the Bay of
Bengal in the backdrop of the evolving security scenario in south Asia.
The Andaman Sea has become a cause of concern for Delhi with gun-runners,
narco-traffickers and pirates operating with impunity. Incidents of piracy
in the South China Sea are on the rise and gun-runners use the Andaman
Sea to supply arms to insurgents in north-east India via Myanmar and Bangladesh.
However, Vice-Admiral P.S. Das, former head of the Eastern Naval Command
and a member of the task force on Higher Defence Management, says the
island territories are India's sea frontiers. The ANC gives the country
the opportunity to defend well away from our coastline. According to him,
the ANC has been created as there was a need to maintain self-sufficient
forces under a unified command. "It is a facility to extend India's
reconnaissance and surveillance reach," he says.
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