The Indian Navy is practicing to operate in the South China Sea to protect the country’s economic assets.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Admiral D.K. Joshi said, “Where our country’s interests are involved, we will protect them and we will intervene.”

The Eastern Naval Command – which looks at India’s eastern sea board and is likely to play a key role when the Navy is deployed in South China Sea – is also being strengthened.

China, which put its first aircraft carrier into service in September, has been locked in a series of disputes over strategic islands in the region, including with Vietnam and the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea.

The decision to use the Indian Navy in the region comes days after Chinese state media announced that the southern Hainan province, which administers the South China Sea, approved laws giving its police the right to search vessels that pass through the waters.

Also Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and India protested a map on a new Chinese passport that depicts disputed areas as belonging to China. The Philippines also issued a statement saying it wants Beijing to “clarify its reported plans to interdict ships that enter what it considers its territory in the South China Sea,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend.

India signed a pact with Vietnam in October last year to expand oil exploration in the South China Sea.

Although Beijing has urged New Delhi not to push ahead with the project for the sake of “peace and stability”, the Admiral said that the Indian Navy was ready to support state energy firm ONGC and had carried out exercises in preparation.

“In certain sectors ONGC Videsh has certain interests. It has energy exploration blocks, three in number, and since it is an area of Indian interests, the Indian Navy, should there be a need, would stand by,” Admiral Joshi said referring to the firm’s international subsidiary.

“If required we will intervene to protect (them),” he said and added that it is the navy’s duty to protect India’s sovereign assets.

Acknowledging the rapid modernisation of the Chinese navy, the navy chief said “It is actually a major cause of concern for us, which we continuously evaluate and work out our options and our strategies.”

According to a report issued by the Pentagon in May, Beijing is pouring money into advanced air defences, submarines, anti-satellite weapons and anti-ship missiles that could all be used to deny an adversary access to strategic areas, such as the South China Sea.

NDTV

India’s National Security and the Chinese Challenge

The ongoing battle of supremacy over the Indian Ocean region between India and China has taken a new twist as Indian security agencies have reportedly spotted a Chinese spy ship floating on the Indian Ocean disguised as a fishing trawler. The Indian radars could not find the ship until 22 days of its presence and it was located off-the cost of Little Anadaman, a strategically crucial and sensitive island for both the countries. It’s learned that the spy ship has as many as 22 laboratories on board. According to a report sent to government, the mission was to map the Indian Ocean and pick up vital bathymetric data, which is crucial for submarine and carrier operations. The other laboratories on board were involved in collecting data on underwater obstructions and obstacles. Indian security agencies also have spotted many Chinese fishing trawlers along Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast which they doubt are spying our missile programs to collect telemetric data of the missiles.

In an alarming revelation, it was revealed in Pentagon’s annual report on Chinese military buildup that China has deployed very advanced and survivable solid-fuel nuclear capable CSS-5 MRBM missiles on Indian border. It reveals that a high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral ties between both the countries. According to the report, China has replaced liquid-fuelled, nuclear-capable CSS-2 IRBMs with more advanced and survivable solid-fuelled CSS-5 MRBM systems on the Indian borders. However, Indian Air Force Chief Norman Anil Kumar Browne showed no panic over the Pentagon report. Dismissing the finding, he said New Delhi has its own plans to counter such situations. “These (threats) are all known, it is nothing that we are worried about. We have our own plans and we are moving ahead with our own plans. These are the realities we have to deal with,” Browne told the reporters, quotes IANS.

The communist nation is desperately looking for ways to make inroads along our borders. U.S. has also revealed that China is pumping in huge investments along the Sino-Indian border on infrastructure developments to build more roads and rail network. India had earlier lodged an official protest over Chinese troops damaging a retaining wall built by Indian Army in Yangtse in Arunachal Pradesh. There were several attempts by the Chinese army to violate the Line of Actual Control (LAC) over the last couple of years.

It is reported that China is looking forward to launch aircraft carrier operations in the strategically crucial Indian Ocean region and the spy work is directly attributed to this. Presence of Chinese Carrier Battle Group in this region will be a major threat India and the Chinese ground forces already enjoy a military supremacy in the land borders. India has strong reasons to be concerned about the Chinese moves as the communist nation is increasingly strengthening its foothold on the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa and its alarmingly close military ties with Pakistan.

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