Joint Exercises on the Cards
An IMR Report
Indian frigate INS Shivalik took part in a
multinational naval show from 23 April as part of People’s Liberation Army
Navy’s (PLAN) 65th anniversary celebrations. This was the first time navies of
India and Pakistan jointly participated in an international naval demonstration
in a third country.
This was the second time Shivalik visited a
Chinese port. In 2013, it visited Shanghai along with four other Indian naval
ships on a good will tour. Shivalik is one of the mainstay frigates of the
Indian Navy. It has been conceived and designed by Indian Navy design teams.
The induction of the Shivalik into the Indian Navy was a landmark event which
heralded new era in indigenous ship building and augmented the existing
blue-water capability of the Indian Navy.
Warships from seven countries including
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore had arrived in Qingdao. The port
has also received a patrol boat from Brunei and an amphibious dock landing ship
from Indonesia. Australia also participated.
The PLA Navy event is also coinciding with the
21-member Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) being held at Qingdao on April
22-24. India, along with Bangladesh and Mexico are the observers in the WPNS.
Its member countries include Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Indonesia,
Japan, Cambodia, Tonga, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, China,
Peru, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand and United
States.
The programme included a two-day
multinational maritime joint operation named, "Sea Cooperation 2014"
involving naval vessels from China and other countries. The operation took
place amid a sense of tension between China and Japan, which are engaged in an
acrimonious dispute over ownership of islands in the South China sea. The
United States did not send a ship to Qingdao after Japan was not invited to
participate.
China asked India, along with Indonesia, to
participate in the most challenging of three different drills held on 23 April.
This involved staging an anti-hijacking exercise, for which China also deployed
its elite commando unit besides an advanced PLAN vessel.
After the exercise, both countries declared
that Shivalik's visit had gone a long way in deepening strategic trust between
two navies that are increasingly coming into contact on the high seas. The
exercises helped enhance “mutual understanding, trust and friendship among
maritime forces” and “cooperation in safeguarding maritime security to better
respond to emergencies,” Xinhua said.
It was the first-ever maritime exercise
involving seven nations in China and had sent a strong signal of India’s
keenness to deepen navy-to-navy links with China.
PLAN officials expressed admiration that
the Shivalik sailed 4,500 miles from Port Blair to Qingdao, through the Indian
Ocean and South China Sea, with neither an accompanying vessel nor an official
from headquarters on board to supervise the exercises. This was unusual from
the point of view of the Chinese Navy, where ships are rarely given such a
degree of autonomy, seen as reflecting the confidence and experience of the
Indian Navy on the high seas.
China has invested billions in building a
modern blue-water Navy, but is still taking tentative steps in spreading its
presence, only starting to venture more deeply into the Indian and Pacific
Oceans beyond the South and East China Seas. In February, a three-ship flotilla
of the PLAN, for the first time, held a 5-day exercise in the Lombok Strait
near Indonesia in the Indian Ocean. The PLAN has also held more than a dozen
drills near the Gulf of Aden, along sea routes crucial to China’s energy
security.
Indian Navy ships also make it a point to
regularly traverse the South China Sea – whose waters and islands are disputed
by China and ten other countries – to underline India’s commitment to freedom
of navigation. In December, the Indian Navy held a more substantial 10-day
exercise involving 15 ships and submarines in the Sunda Strait near Indonesia.
As more Chinese ships sail west and Indian
ships sail east, both countries used the exercise to stress their intent to
ensure they will deepen mutual trust to address any insecurities. To that end,
both countries have also discussed holding another round of maritime exercises
later in 2014. The bilateral exercise is likely to coincide with the India-U.S.
Malabar maritime exercise, which may also involve Japan for the first time in
seven years, and ease any anxieties China may have had about India’s strategic
intentions.
The countries are also looking to step up
maritime cooperation. China has invited India to be part of its new Maritime
Silk Road initiative.
Land Wargames
India will participate in the fourth
edition of joint Army training exercise with China near Bathinda (Punjab) in
India in November 2014. Chinese defence minister Gen. Chang Wanquan will also visit
India later in 2014. This was communicated to the Indian side by a visiting
eight-member Chinese military delegation headed by the People’s Liberation
Army’s Deputy Chief of General Staff (Operations) Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo on 23
April.
This will be the second time India will
host Chinese troops since 2007 when the joint exercises started. The exercises
or joint drills, which were agreed upon as per a bilateral memorandum of
understanding to institutionalise training and exercise exchanges and other contacts
between the two militaries signed in 2006, will take place in the backdrop of
major incursions by the Chinese army across the un-demarcated Line of Actual
Control in Ladakh and an earlier suspension in bilateral exercises following a
diplomatic standoff on the non-grant of a visa for India's Northern Army
Commander posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
India engages in joint military exercises
with a number of countries that range from the US, Russia, European countries
to nations in South East and Far East Asia. Joint military exercises with some
of these countries are of a high and advanced order. However, the focus of
'Exercise Hand-in-Hand' with China is on counter-terrorism. This theme is
considered politically acceptable for confidence building between the two
armies. When the first exercise was held in Yunnan province of China in
December 2007, Beijing had stated that the exercise was designed to address the
'three evil forces' of 'separatism, extremism and terrorism'. China is facing
violent Muslim separatists in Uighur province while India has a long history of
facing terrorism, insurgency and violent political agitations.
Bilateral exercises with China are a good
confidence-building measure which must continue. But any expectation that these
will translate into closer bilateral friendship, let alone ease China's
position on its territorial claims on India, will be far-fetched. China has
displayed aggressive postures on the ground in Ladakh, continues to demonstrate
its bias towards Pakistan on Kashmir and displays no urgency to resolve the
border issue with India. Yet, such exercises with the politically powerful
Chinese army are a welcome tool in the box for bilateral engagement.
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New Govt May Boost Military Diplomacy
The armed forces have chalked out a
staggering round of combat exercises, professional exchanges and training
deployments with different countries this year, with the hope that the new
government that comes to office will impart a much-needed thrust to military
diplomacy. These include over 25 exercises with countries ranging from US,
France, Russia, Brazil and South Africa to Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia,
Myanmar and Malaysia in 2014.
Combat exercises help the forces to
exchange doctrinal and operational expertise with others and also project
military capabilities around the globe. They also help in instituting
confidence-building measures with potential adversaries.
The Indian Navy sent a stealth frigate -
INS Shivalik - to Qingdao to participate in China's international fleet review
on 21 April. The Army has planned the "Hand-in-Hand" exercise with
the People's Liberation Army at Bhatinda in October.
India will be joining forces with the US
and Japan in the Western Pacific in July for the top-notch "Malabar"
naval wargames, which has riled China in the past. After Malabar, the Indian
eastern fleet flotilla will steam further ahead to hold the "Indra"
exercise with the Russian Navy.
Indian and US forces have held as many as
70 combat exercises over the last decade despite the ups and downs in the
bilateral diplomatic ties. The calendar is packed this year too. Apart from the
"Yudh Abhyas" counter-terrorism exercise at Chaubatia (Uttarakhand)
in September, India will also be sending a warship to Hawaii for the noted
RIMPAC exercise in July.
IAF, too, is keen to match its air combat
skills in the famous US "Red Flag" exercise held at the Nellis
airbase in Nevada in 2015, even as it prepares to host French Rafale fighter jets
for the bilateral "Garuda" exercise at Jodhpur in June.
Apart from exercises with neighbours like
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives, India is also focusing on
the strategically-located, energy-rich Central Asia. It will, for instance,
hold an Army exercise with Kyrgyzstan in September, while conducting the
"Nomadic Elephant" maneuvers with Mongolia in August.
Then, there is the plan to step up the
deployment of "training teams" overseas to help friendly countries in
capacity-building of their armed forces. With such teams already present in 10
countries, ranging from Bhutan to Vietnam, the Army is looking to deploy its
specialists in countries like Botswana, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Lesotho
and Bangladesh.
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Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, DGMO Indian Army
(left) with a senior Colonel of the PLA at a ‘Hand-to-Hand’ exercise in India
in 2008
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