Navy ups patrolling in Malacca, Indian Ocean

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 17

India’s long-term deployments in Malacca Straits and other entry points to the Indian Ocean have been showing results with the Navy now keeping an eye on shipping.

The Navy on Tuesday tweeted pictures of three Chinese warships entering the Indian Ocean through the straits of Ombai Wetar in Indonesia. Though these are international waters, the Navy tweet said: “Extend a warm welcome to the 29th Anti-Piracy Escort Force (APEF) of PLA(N) in Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Happy Hunting (sic).”

These are normal greetings at high sea, but show the ability of the Navy to keep an eye at Malacca and also the eastern straits of Sunda and Straits Lumbok.

The Navy’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean is such that it today tweeted “with 50 ships on vigil 24X7 keep our Area of Responsibility (AOR) safe”. The AOR is the Indian Ocean.

Apart from the surface ships, Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, the Boeing-made Poseidon 8I planes, are tasked with flying sorties, sometimes up to the South China Sea, almost every day, from INS Rajali in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu. The Navy has a target to ensure its dominance in the Indian Ocean by 2020. It’s not for patrol or deployment, but only for awareness of the busiest sea lane of communication.

In July last year, the Navy was tasked to patrol sea-shipping routes to the Malacca Straits, an important “choke point” south-east of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

The US Department of Defence has, in its reports, highlighted why the Malacca Straits were crucial for China. An annual report, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2017”, presented before the Congress, said: “In 2016, approximately 80 per cent of China’s oil imports and 11 per cent of natural gas imports transited the South China Sea and Malacca Straits. Despite China’s efforts, the sheer volume of oil and liquefied natural gas that is imported to China from the Middle East and Africa will continue to make strategic sea lane of communications important to China,” the report noted.