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Sea Of Friendship

The Indian Navy's International Fleet Review was a fine effort at naval diplomacy which the Government would do well to build on, writes INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Sandeep Unnithan.

When Lt-Colonel Sukhvinder Singh Chopra, resplendent in white uniform, spoke about our country standing on the bridge of a 6,000-tonne tank landing ship, you'd have imagined he was referring to India. But the second-generation Singaporean Sikh, captain of the RSS Endurance, wasn't. Addressing his Indian liason officer, he wanted to know what the latest Sardar joke in the land of his ancestors was.

There was a feel-good ring to the conversation that followed. A feeling that echoed through the entire International Fleet Review (IFR), the five-day naval spectacle that concluded in Mumbai last month. With 4,500 sailors from 19 different countries, and 16 foreign naval chiefs present in person, it was the single largest exercise of naval diplomacy undertaken by India since Independence. And the response was more than encouraging.

Russian naval chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov probably summed up the IFR best when he said only one word mattered---friendship---during the event. Unlike the other services which have to operate within borders, navies are not constrained by considerations, explains Vice-Admiral Madhvendra Singh, flag officer, commanding-in-chief, Western Naval Command. They sea is one and they are free to roam it.

The international opprobrium that followed Pokhran-II three years ago had vanished. In its place was a feeling of bonhomie, whether it was the American ship playing Jana Gana Mana or the Russian bands performing Mera Joota Hai Japani. With the goodwill also came a realisation that the Indian Navy was the most powerful regional navy in the Indian Ocean---a vital trade route in the world. As Rear Admiral Herve Giraud, commander of the French forces in this sector, pointed out, It's the world's most important road---the new Silk Route. The life blood of the world's nations passes through here. Significantly, 15 of the 24 navies which participated in the fleet review were from countries of the Indian Ocean rim.

Having deployed its ships and aircraft in a wide sweep from South Africa to Australia, the Indian Navy's doctrinal triad enunciated by Admiral Sushil Kumar, was marked by a strong deterrent posture, a forward presence to curb militancy in the Indian Ocean and maritime diplomacy. While it's role in hastening an end to the Kargil war in June 1999 and the seizure of the pirated Japanese ship Alondra rainbow five months later were examples of the first two, IFR, say naval brass, was a fine effort at maritime diplomacy too.

Lieutenant Commander Wolfgang Hennen, a German naval officer serving on the French frigate Dupleix, understands this. Politicians preach of great differences between each other, but it's only when we meet that we realise we're all part of the same brotherhood of the sea.

The political tensions of the Gulf simmered at the IFR but did not boil over. The Iranian Navy requested that their participating frigate be kept away from Globo-cop USA's 10,000-tonne Ticonderoga class cruiser USS Cowpens, arguably one of the most powerful surface warships ever built. That the Cowpens had dished out Tomahawk tutorials to everyone from Saddam Hussain to Osama Bin Laden three years ago hadn't been forgotten in a hurry. We don't care who else is here, the Iranian captain told his Indian counterparts, referring to the US and Israeli delegations. We're here only because our friend India called us.

Captain Paul S Holmes of the Cowpens, however, prefers to look beyond. I'm somewhat overwhelmed by what I'm seeing, I haven't seen anything like this since the end of the Cold War, he commented. The end of that war could be one reason why Russian warships like the Admiral Vinogradov and the Admiral Panteleev, which the Cowpens was built to destroy, were anchored a short distance away. By sailing down all the way from the frozen Pacific port of Vladivostok, the Russian ships had come to reassert their traditional ties with India.

For the smaller navies, distances were immaterial. The Polish training ship Wudnik sailed for over a month to reach Mumbai, while Moroccoan naval frigate Captain Al Rahmani sailed for 20 days. For others, size didn't matter. The two tiny Kenyan patrol ships, KNS Shujaa and the KNS Nyayo, were tossed about in the seas off Somalia as they crossed the Indian Ocean during their eight-day voyage.

It took the Indian Navy two years of painstaking planning to organise the mammoth event. We've laid the foundation, said Captain Rajender Singh, captain IFR, at the end of it all. It is now for the Government to build upon it.

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