Is India planning to spy on Chinese submarines from the Andamans, with a little help from Japan?
The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago of 524 islands, only 38 of which are inhabited, stretches across some 1,000km (620 miles) of Indian Ocean by the western entrance to the Malacca Strait, through which an estimated 80 per cent or more of China's seaborne trade passes.
"It is like a [permanent] aircraft carrier," Kanwal Sibal, a former foreign secretary of India, told This Week In Asia, "that gives India very extensive control over maritime space and sea lanes of communication to monitor shipping and naval vessels."
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
Against this backdrop, India has in recent months expedited plans to base additional military forces on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, including facilities for additional warships, aircraft, missile batteries and soldiers, according to Abhijit Singh, a senior fellow and head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank.
The retired naval officer said runways at Indian naval air stations in the far north and south of the island chain had been extended to accommodate larger aircraft, while a 10-year infrastructure development plan for the islands has also been fast-tracked.
Last month, Japan extended development assistance to the islands for the first time in the form of a US$36 million government grant to upgrade the power grid on South Andaman Island, where capital city Port Blair and most of the archipelago's population are located. The grant, which Deepa Wadhwa, a retired Indian ambassador to Japan, says "reflect the two countries convergence on security issues and commitment for a free and open Indo-Pacific", will be used to buy batteries to aid solar power generation on the island - and hints at a greater opening of the area to friendly nations, according to security experts.
Sujan R. Chinoy, a retired diplomat and the current director general of the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis in Delhi, has argued in favour of such a move, saying India should collaborate with the US, Japan and Australia - fellow members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or "Quad" - to implement an effective system of underwater surveillance around the islands, where India's only tripartite military command, comprising the army, navy and the air force, is located.
"Surveillance of Chinese naval [assets], especially submarines, in the Indo-Pacific should be on the Quad's - and therefore the Indo-Japan - agenda," said Sibal, the former top diplomat, who added that "a division of responsibility in the Indo-Pacific should be an objective" for the Quad - with India, Australia and Japan each taking an area of responsibility, while the US fills in the gaps with its massive maritime capabilities.
India does not allow foreign navies to use its facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at present, partly out of concern that it could spook other nations in the region, according to Abhijit Singh of the Observer Research Foundation. "There is also apprehension that operating sensitive equipment with foreign partners might involve the sharing of critical undersea data and a level of informational access to foreign collaborators that the Indian Navy may not be comfortable with," he said.
Strategic analysis website Resonant News reported in July that the US and Japan had helped deploy an underwater surveillance network in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to monitor Chinese submarines - though there was no official confirmation of the supposed development.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
