Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The Indian Ocean Region is an important area' that was published in Newsband

The Indian Ocean Region is an important area

Seychelles President Danny Faure had visited India. The setbacks in the bilateral relationship between the two countries was owing to Island agreement being put on hold.

The pact, to build a naval base on the island, was seen as a major strategic enhancement of India’s IOR naval capacities. It was finally signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Seychelles in 2015. The deal was to include 30-year access to the base as well as permission to station Indian military personnel on the ground, with facilities on the island funded by India, owned by Seychelles and jointly managed. After Opposition protests an amended version was signed in January 2018. Even that proved insufficient. Faure announced that Seychelles would build the naval facility “on its own”. This was a blow to India’s plans.

However, India announced a credit line of $100 million for Seychelles to purchase defence equipment from India to build its maritime capacity. This is good strategy. It is best to keep the agreement in abeyance. This softer approach is good as compared to the the strong-arm tactics against Maldives under the Abdulla Yameen government and this has now led to a considerable setback to its strategic position there.

There are some Indian critics who have other idea. According to them, first under the political condition in every democratic country, no agreement is confirmed until and unless all the political parties are roped in. Secondly, considering our situation both politically and financially we cannot help the neighbouring countries, as China does. We can keep a wish list of what all we would like to do. Execution is very difficult, considering the clout that China has in the region.

Unchallenged ocean-ruling nations have become anachronous. The most powerful leading navies today have learned the sobering lesson and their governments are using hybrid power projections to protect their interests and co-exist in peaceful competition. India’s talented policy drafters must now be given their turn to think out stable solutions in a changed and much more chaotic world.

The challenge of consolidating peninsular India’s natural advantages in the Indian Ocean (only ocean to be named after a country) is becoming harder these days. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the British India had to continuously defend itself from rival powers in the Indian Ocean. Being considered by India as “Zone of peace” after that has become military base of Russia, France, US and China. Especially, China’s military presence in Indian Ocean region is growing concern for India.

Being a sovereign country, Seychelles has all rights to oppose any country to operate military base in its soil. Hence, this challenge should be addressed amicably by solving domestic concerns of Seychelles in order to find a ‘win-win’ situation for both.

India's incessant approach with Sri Lanka in the Chinese built port succeeded and now Sri Lanka is to post a naval unit on it and it has told China that it should not use the Port for military purposes. Similarly in the case of Maldives and Seychelles India should continue soft endeavour when major negotiation fails and it will yield.