By Afshain Afzal

Admiral R Hari Kumar is all set to take charge as the new Chief of the Indian Navy on 30 November 2021, when Admiral Karambir Singh retires. He would inherit Western allies’ assigned role in the Indian Ocean. Presently, Western nations are using India as a front-man to intrude and finance to make countries of Asia and Africa economically their captives. No doubt, it is too harsh a statement but truth starts from this point. The concept of Global Village where people of Asia, Africa and other developing nations would work as labour force and the Capitalist countries would get the job done is being witnessed on ground. It is no more a secret that India, backed by the Western funding and military hardware fitted with hi-technological equipment, is playing the role of Puppet-Policeman in the Indian Ocean. Instance of Indian Navy ships shadowing Chinese ships in the Gulf as well as sailing up to the Pakistani port of Gwadar was detected quite recently.

In the name of Quad-plus Navy drills, the Indo-US Alliance is acquiring territories, harbours and space for the military projects around the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The threat to peaceful Indian Ocean has become a serious question for the maintenance of world peace. In the name of gathering intelligence and fighting terrorism, the Defence Intelligence Authorities (DIAs) of India, US and Israeli Military Intelligence אמ״ן‎ “AMAN” are expanding bilateral cooperation, however, there is no doubt that these have military long term designs to achieve strategic ends. The United States and Israeli military is not only providing advisory inputs to Indian military but also to the periphery countries directly as well as through Indian channeled funding, aiming to activate the governments against own nationals on the basis on advices and intelligence inputs. This result   foreign-funded insurgencies and rebellions through International Organizations and INGOs that ultimately lead to mass killings own people.

Quite recently, to establish joint Indian Navy Submarine Strike Force, foreign Navy ships along with three Indian Navy ships including Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kadamba were spotted in the Mauritius’ territories of North Agaléga Island, which is being used as strategic naval base by the Indian Navy along with US and other Navies. In the name of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) policy, India plans a hegemonic policy to subdue all smaller nations. An Indian Navy commander at INS Tabar briefed about strategic bases at littoral nations of IOR, overtly for ensuring safe and peaceful sea lanes and working for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), however, he did not rule out launching operations against suspected ships on sea lane, “against which intelligence input is received having engaged in transferring arms and ammunitions from Asia to African and other parts of the world," He disclosed, "Quite recently, a joint Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), for better coordination of the maritime domain as well as to develop a Policeman capacity, has been established to control not only the choke points but also sea lanes". In this regard, so far at least 12 countries including Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand have extended their cooperation.

In another development, Indian Navy officers, who are working for foreign companies disclosed, "There are a lot of activities going on in Indian Navy operated airfield at Dabolim, Goa as well as Gujarat," They claimed, "Presence of Israeli and American military and Navy personnel is not a coincidence and not in the interest of Indian sovereignty." It was revealed, “Israeli Navy personnel are stationed at INS 'Visakhapatnam', a P15B stealth guided-missile which has capability to launch guided anti-aircraft missiles from its deck. India, the US and Israel are also coordination with Tri Services Command for maritime security operations.” The fact cannot be denied that since 2007, Israeli and US Commandos are located at different locations in India.

One wonders if Indo-Pacific has been formulated to balance China or control world trade through militarily occupying sea lanes and strategic ports, it would create new war zones. The new constructions at ports at Djibouti, Tanzania and Lamu port in Northern Kenya are steps in the same direction.  INS Airavat and huge Navy setups coming up at the Vanilla Islands as chokepoints for Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) is giving edge to Western and Indian Navies. India has set radio and radar monitoring stations all around Asia and Africa.

If we recall, Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) between Indian and the US was signed in August 2016, which allowed Indian and the American warships to take fuel from Navy oil tankers of each other deployed in the region. The new Navy Alliance has not left any area in its mandate to control even the non-military affairs. Mandates include climate change, sovereignty, delimitation of maritime boundaries, illegal fishing, trade and infrastructure development, marine governance, and port cyber infrastructure security.

India is a poor country and cannot feed its nation properly. In such a case, how can India carryout multi-million military projects abroad? In fact, the Western nations including the US, EU countries, Israel and even Russia have placed their military assets all around through the good offices of India to reinforce military-might under the garb of maritime posture and to protect sea lines of communication.   The “Forward Presence” of these nations on land, at sea, and in the air is threat to peaceful survival of sovereign nations, especially the smaller nations. The strengthening of the military strike forces and developing of capacities to deal with the threats and challenges emanating from the economic and trade wars revivals is dragging the peaceful nations towards war, destruction and chaos. It is high time that nations in IOR must review their MoUs, bilateral and multilateral agreements with foreign nations.