Dr Pooja Bhatt, a renowned security analyst whose areas of interest and expertise span Maritime Security and Asian Security Architectures, particularly with reference to the Indo-Pacific, believes that India’s increasing naval presence in the increasingly crowded and contested South China Sea is a part of its Act East policy. Does that mean India might be willing to eventually join the Freedom Of Navigation (FON) Operations being conducted by the US in the region?
“One of the reasons we are increasingly present in the South China Sea is also because of our operational reach that we wanted for the longest time,” she says. “The eastern naval command, which looks towards the Indian ocean and the Chinese waters, is trying to expand its reach. The recent exercises we are seeing in the region over the past year are all a part of the operational reach towards the Indian Ocean.”
But, she says, “they are all under the aegis of maritime partnership exercises, and not Freedom of Navigation, because techincally, the two are very different.”
It is only the US which has the kind of wherewithal to carry out FON operations in terms of warships and supporting forces which can conduct these kind of operations, she says. On the other hand, “India has never that kind of reach beyond our immediate waters. So it is also a very testing time for us go out to South China Seas,” she says. These are high seas open to everyone, and we are now trying to reach out to our partners –like the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and others—to solidify and strengthen these partnerships.”
As for the increasing Philippine pushback against China despite the latter being a much larger power, she says it was a “long time coming.” The current leadership has realised that they cannot ignore the plight of their fishermen, as well as the blatant intrusion into their maritime boundaries by the Chinese. The relationship with the US has also changed for the better with the government led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and the recent summit with US president Joe Biden must have given him some confidence, she felt.
To find out whether Japan will come to Taiwan’s rescue if it is attacked by the Chinese, and what the various outfits like the QUAD, AUKUS, and now the SQUAD, as well as several other maritime alignments taking place in an increasingly volatile South China Sea are for, watch the full interview.
