The India's Strategy to Counter China!
China's String of Pearls, Debt Trap Diplomacy and India's Necklace of Diamonds Strategy.
In 2004 United States political researchers named the growing Chinese military and commercial logistical network "STRING OF PEARLS" when it was in its initial phases, though at that it was just an hypothesis but in few years Chinese intentions were clear. China launched its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, Belt and Road Initiative would touch nearly 1/3rd of world trade and 60% of world population. This is a very big number. This would have connected China to Central Asia and Europe and connect East Africa through Sea links but this is its commercial role, the strategic goal is to dominance in the Indian Ocean Region.
But why? Indian Ocean Region has surpassed the world's economy since year 2000 and trade is growing at the rate of 10% per year. According to a think tank LKI, Indian Ocean Region will host 20% of the world's GDP by 2025, world's 40% offshore oil production (oil taken out from seabed) is from Indian Ocean Region and world's 2/3rd oil pass from this region and this Indian Ocean Region caters half of coal demands of the world. Indian Ocean Region is surrounded by land from three side, the water is warm that creates a diverse marine ecosystem in which economically important fishes are found and the FYI global fish market is well over $223 billion. Now think why anyone don't want to dominate the region by which they can support the economy of their nation and the economic dominance is the real dominance which fuels your military capabilities but with the presence of India, achieving this is impossible for China.
Lets understand this: China's BRI project creates a string of peals around India which indicates towards choking India apart from economic benefits and this project is very important for Chinese militarily, from Djibouti's Naval Base to Pakistan's Gwadar port from Myanmar Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone to Sri Lankan Hambantota Port Chinese are like making a trap for India. From Djibouti Chinese gets access to Bab-Al-Madab strait which creates a leverage for them against the sea traffic coming from Suez Canal, upwest to Bab-Al-Madab, It is one of the most strategically important canal which connect Europe to Asia. You will find one thing common in the place of Chinese influence and where they have developed infrastructures Corrupt governments which leads to compromised nation security. But this hypothesis of string pearls can actually makes a difference?
If you look from a bird eye than Chinese have maintained a good presence and positioning with all countries associated with BRI but the biggest problem in this is that if you don't maintain strategic relation with fair reciprocity then they are not very long term relations and the biggest example is Ukraine, Ukraine and West is the classic case study of this “when your country gets compromised by corruption then you don't have any leverage of the relationship of yours with any superpower against a stronger enemy”. To counter this endeavor of Chinese, India did major changes in its geopolitical strategies and the way Chinese strategy was called “String of Pearls” like that Indian strategy is called “Necklace of Diamonds” and from here you will get the answer that why India's neck is way stronger to be choked. When China is exploiting Sri Lanka and Myanmar, India is forming strategic partnership with ASEAN countries.
For e.g. - India and Singapore signed a strategic agreement after which Indian Navy ships can refuel and rearm themselves at Changi Naval Base, Changi Naval Base lies in the Singaporean strait which is the gateway of Strait of Malacca from the South-China Sea and this strait is the lifeline of the Chinese economy and this agreement had 2 highlights “The achievement of naval operational swiftness and strategic cooperation” before this agreement to use the Changi Naval base Indian Navy had to follow a long chain of communication, first through Defence Ministry to External Affair Ministry and then we use to get permission from the Singaporean authorities but after this agreement operational swiftness has increased significantly because now Indian Navy can directly contact Changi Naval Base. 2nd highlight is strategic cooperation, we are not corrupting or threatening Singapore but maintaining this relationship with strategic cooperation in the return of this port access we have promised to give logistical support to Singaporean vessels and for that our ships can be refuel and rearm, please pay attention to these two words - REFUEL AND REARM.
A similar significant agreement was signed with Indonesia in 2018, which gave us economic and military access of Sabang Port. Sabang Port is a very strategically located port which is the gateway of Strait of Malacca from the Indian Ocean Region side.
India can now effectively control the one of the most important waterways and the gateway of the lifeline of Chinese economy but the biggest confidence building measure among ASEAN was the India-Philippines Brahmos deal, this deal was important for India's domestic defence industry but it become a big milestone for India's Act East policy also. Philippines is also fighting to secure its territories from the Chinese since 1990s and the Brahmos gave a major boost to Filipino coastal defence and denial which resulted in more ASEAN countries interested in Brahmos which are irritated by China. South Asian nations are continuously getting harassed by Chinese Navy or the Chinese maritime militia.
India also signed a very interesting agreement with Japan in September 2020 with the name Acquisition And Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) under which Indian Military and Japanese Self Defence forces can exchange supplies and service, I called it interesting because its purpose is told for humanitarian assistance which sounded like a very non military term but the fact of the matter is this is signed to use each others military bases another agreement like this India signed with Australia in June 2020 and both these agreements were signed during the LAC standoff and this was the significant push of India towards QUAD. This was of East now lets talk about West.
India’s Strategy to Counter China in West
India is developing Chabahar port in Iran to counter Chinese port Djibouti and Gwadar in Pakistan but India's strategic development and deployment in Oman is worth a watch which is called Ras-Al Hadd where India setup a listening post after India signed a defence agreement in 2008 this listening post is 400kms away from the Gwadar port and Pakistan and it is said that this post can listen to the communication of Pakistan's Navy and it is one important establishment of Indian presence in Gulf region. Indian Ships have access of Oman's Duqm port which gives India reach to Persian gulf and the whole traffic passes from Horn of Africa and if we come down from Oman in South then India also a have listening post in Madagascar which helps India to keep an eye on a strategically important Mozambique channel where significant amount of Chinese strategic establishments are present and Chinese have high hopes from East Africa in this region India is planning to build a military base in the Seychelles’s Assumptions Island with the motive of securing Indian ship in South Indian Ocean and to deploy a Quick Reaction Force to counter any hostility because Seychelles which is an archipelago (Islands ke group se bana desh) is near to one of the heavily pirate infested areas of the world. India supported more than 20 infrastructure projects in Seychelles which was coordinated by India Army's Former Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag but the deal of Indian base was opposed by that time's leader of opposition Wavel Ramakalwan and the problem is there was a government change in Seychelles in 2020 and the same Wavel Ramakalwan is the president of Seychelles.
It shows the brutal nature of geopolitics where you can do alot of good work but sometimes you have to lose in some cases and the same goes with the docking of Chinse ship in Sri Lanka and this happened when India helped Sri Lanka alot in its toughest time. Sri Lanka leased its Hambantota port to Chinese is a well known to everyone but do you know that India also got Sri Lanka's Matala Rajapakasha airport from Sri Lanka on lease for 40 years in 2017? This airport is few kilometers away from Hambantota port and stays usually empty India has the opportunity to convert it into a drone base and keep eye on Chinese activity in Hambantota Port. It is always the game of counter balance and India has worked very quickly with great pace to achieve this counter balance.
After hearing Maldives name vacations comes in everyone's mind but India is investing heavily in upgrading Maldives security establishment and apart from improving and training Maldive's law enforcement capabilities India hand over 10 coastal radars to Maldives in March 2022.
When you connect all the dots, you will get a shape like a “Necklace” which become India's “Necklace of Diamonds” in the response of Chinese “String of Pearls”.
It is said that this necklace is not that strong but it doesn't make India a cake walk either at last these geopolitical games are longterm and every country's geopolitcal ambitions are backed by a robust and well thought strategy.
Some of the sources for this article apart from books : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/... https://www.maritimegateway.com/the-s... https://www.csis.org/belt-and-road-in... https://aii.unimelb.edu.au/wp-content... https://media.defense.gov/2020/Aug/31... https://www.indiannavy.nic.in/sites/d... https://www.orfonline.org/research/ho... https://thediplomat.com/2020/09/india... https://www.india.com/news/india/sing...
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- Poorvam Tomar.
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