NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday opened a two-day Indian Ocean naval symposium. Modeled on the lines of Western Pacific Naval Symposium, the symposium seeks to provide a regional forum through which naval chiefs of littoral states of the Indian Ocean can periodically meet to constructively engage one another through regionally relevant mechanisms, events and activities.
Described as a cooperative, consultative and inclusive regional initiative, the meeting is being hosted by the Indian Navy.
At the meeting, India called for an alliance of navies to boost security at sea.
Twenty-six representatives of navies from countries including Australia, Egypt, France and Sri Lanka are attending the meeting, seen by experts as an effort by New Delhi to assert its strategic presence.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, launching the event, said regional cooperation would help combat piracy and terrorism. “Recent years have seen a rise in crimes such as terrorism, smuggling, including of narcotics, arms and weapons, and piracy and robbery,” Manmohan Singh said.
“The perpetrators of these crimes are well-organized and well-funded transnational crime syndicates who take full advantage of the vastness of the oceans. The need for cooperation among the navies of the region in preventing such crimes is therefore of paramount interest,” he said.
“India remains committed to an Indian Ocean that is stable and peaceful,” the prime minister said, calling for “the freedom of the seas for all nations... to deepen trade and economic links.”
Indian naval chief Adm. Suresh Mehta called for a loose military alliance of regional navies to keep the busy sea lanes secure.
“The threats of intra-state turmoil as well as a variety of security threats that are short of state-on-state conflict, remain a grim reality, presenting a significant risk to peace and stability,” Mehta told the meeting.
India has offered an unofficial naval blockade of the waters around Sri Lanka and the Maldives to prevent Tamil guerrillas from smuggling arms onto the island to fuel their battle for a homeland.
“The threat from malevolent non-state actors presents a clear and present danger to not just one or some, but to all of us,” Mehta said, without directly referring to the Sri Lankan conflict.
“(However) it is critical to ensure that whatever we plan and do flows from a broad consensus, with political backing, maritime commitment, and naval resolve,” the chief of India’s 137-ship navy added.
India during the 2004 tsunami spurned an unsolicited US offer to provide help to the thousands of victims and instead sent its own naval ships to Sri Lanka and Indonesia in a sign of its expanding reach.
Last September, India invited Australia, Japan, Singapore and the United States for major joint naval exercises off the Andaman Islands, raising eyebrows in Pakistan and China.
The symposium will also focus on the war in Sri Lanka, notably the Tamil Tigers’ continued weapons smuggling, diplomats said.
— With input from agencies
