Indian warships to impress ‘Gulf friends’
Maqbool Malik The Nation April 29, 2016
Islamabad - India will be dispatching flotilla of warships to the Persian Gulf countries next month to show the burgeoning Arab friends and old friend Iran its military prowess that could be made available to them in any eventuality.
According to sources, Indian defence ministry has announced that guided-missile destroyer INS Delhi, stealth frigates INS Tarkash and INS Trikhand, missle frigate INS Ganga and tanker INS Deepak of the western naval fleet will leave Mumbai for Dubai (UAE) on May 3.
After three days in Dubai, the warships will reach Kuwait on May 12 before heading for Bahrain and Oman and then back to Mumbai by May27-28. At the same time from May 20-23, another Indian warship will call on main Iranian port Bandar Abbas.
Furthermore, Indian fighter jets IAF’s Sukhi-30MKI and mid-air refuelling aircraft IL-78 will also land in UAE for an exercise.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is also scheduled to visit Oman in May to discuss defence cooperation with the Arab state.
New Delhi recently stepped up diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia in particular and Persian Gulf countries in general in the wake of its deepening ties with the United States.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, signed a number of agreements, including those relating to defence cooperation. So is the case with other Gulf Arab states who are also seeking deeper ties with India.
With Iran, India has already profound relations and making hefty investments in strategically located Iranian Chabahar port to access the landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian markets.
Policy experts while speaking to The Nation said one of the reasons India has stepped up efforts to have stronger ties with Arab countries is to fell in the vacuum created as a result of Pakistan’s neutrality in Saudi-led war in Yemen.
They also believed that India is now trying to play the role of balancing power between the Arab countries and Iran. “It is quite premature at this stage to say with certainty that how India would maintain its relations with all the Sunni Arabs and Shia Iran”, said Dr Fazlul Rehman, an Islamabad based geo-strategist who runs a policy institute.
He was of the view that the US and India are trying to forge a strategic partnership after China announced its multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under its One Belt-One Road programme.
Another analyst, who requested not to be named, said that the geopolitical and geostrategic environment in the region is rapidly changing and such developments are a routine affair in view strategic interest of world’s major powers as well as regional countries.
He said that since China will be operating the Gwadar port in the western Indian Ocean, economic interests of various regional countries especially the Arabs and Iran are being seen as threatened. He was of the view that these countries along with India are now trying to make adjustments accordingly.
Published in The Nation newspaper on 29-Apr-2016
Maqbool Malik The Nation April 29, 2016
Islamabad - India will be dispatching flotilla of warships to the Persian Gulf countries next month to show the burgeoning Arab friends and old friend Iran its military prowess that could be made available to them in any eventuality.
According to sources, Indian defence ministry has announced that guided-missile destroyer INS Delhi, stealth frigates INS Tarkash and INS Trikhand, missle frigate INS Ganga and tanker INS Deepak of the western naval fleet will leave Mumbai for Dubai (UAE) on May 3.
After three days in Dubai, the warships will reach Kuwait on May 12 before heading for Bahrain and Oman and then back to Mumbai by May27-28. At the same time from May 20-23, another Indian warship will call on main Iranian port Bandar Abbas.
Furthermore, Indian fighter jets IAF’s Sukhi-30MKI and mid-air refuelling aircraft IL-78 will also land in UAE for an exercise.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is also scheduled to visit Oman in May to discuss defence cooperation with the Arab state.
New Delhi recently stepped up diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia in particular and Persian Gulf countries in general in the wake of its deepening ties with the United States.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, signed a number of agreements, including those relating to defence cooperation. So is the case with other Gulf Arab states who are also seeking deeper ties with India.
With Iran, India has already profound relations and making hefty investments in strategically located Iranian Chabahar port to access the landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian markets.
Policy experts while speaking to The Nation said one of the reasons India has stepped up efforts to have stronger ties with Arab countries is to fell in the vacuum created as a result of Pakistan’s neutrality in Saudi-led war in Yemen.
They also believed that India is now trying to play the role of balancing power between the Arab countries and Iran. “It is quite premature at this stage to say with certainty that how India would maintain its relations with all the Sunni Arabs and Shia Iran”, said Dr Fazlul Rehman, an Islamabad based geo-strategist who runs a policy institute.
He was of the view that the US and India are trying to forge a strategic partnership after China announced its multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under its One Belt-One Road programme.
Another analyst, who requested not to be named, said that the geopolitical and geostrategic environment in the region is rapidly changing and such developments are a routine affair in view strategic interest of world’s major powers as well as regional countries.
He said that since China will be operating the Gwadar port in the western Indian Ocean, economic interests of various regional countries especially the Arabs and Iran are being seen as threatened. He was of the view that these countries along with India are now trying to make adjustments accordingly.
Published in The Nation newspaper on 29-Apr-2016
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