Rolling out plans for military reforms, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat said that India will have two to five theatre commands to deal with future security challenges along the western and northern borders and the first one is expected to be operational by 2022. He said the Western and Eastern commands of the Navy will be merged into the proposed Peninsular Command and it will take care of security challenges in the Indian Ocean region.

Significance of region

The Indian Ocean is the world’s third largest ocean and covers nearly 20 per cent of the water surface.

The Indian Ocean region is identified as follows - its western border is continental Africa, where it stretches south from Cape Agulhas; its northern border is continental Asia from Suez to the Malay Peninsula; in the east it incorporates Singapore, the Indonesian archipelago, Australia and Tasmania; while in the south it stretches to areas determined as per the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.

The region has 51 coastal and landlocked states, namely 26 Indian Ocean Rim states, five Red Sea states, four Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain and 13 landlocked states.

The four critically important access waterways in the region are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman) and Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia).

The major seaports are Chennai, Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kolkata, Melbourne (Australia), Mumbai and Richards Bay (South Africa).

Growing in importance

Indian Ocean countries have a long history of trade, culture and military interaction with the rest of the world. Today, the Indian Ocean’s traditional status as an international trade highway is more significant than ever before, while international military presence in the ocean is unprecedented.

The region contains one-third of the world’s population, 25 per cent of its landmass and 40 per cent of the world’s oil and gas reserves.

A major concern of India in the Indian Ocean is energy. India is almost 70 per cent dependent on oil imports, a major part of which comes from the Gulf region.

The sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are considered among the most strategically important in the world. More than 80 per cent of the world’s seaborne trade in oil transits through Indian Ocean choke points, with 40 per cent passing through the Strait of Hormuz, 35 per cent through the Strait of Malacca and 8 per cent through the Bab el Mandeb Strait.

The Indian Ocean is an area of conflict. Some conflicts are internal and remain localised, but other local and regional conflicts are of global significance and are prone to foreign political and military interference. Some notable conflict areas are Israel and Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Though the causes of these conflicts vary, many can be associated with weak or failed states, significant levels of poverty, poorly developed institutions, the absence of democracy, corruption, competition for scarce resources, interference by foreign powers, the global war on terror and what can be termed “turbulence” in the Islamic world.

Strategic developments

The region is home to continually evolving strategic developments including the competing rise of China and India, potential nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan, the US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Islamist terrorism, growing incidence of piracy in and around the Horn of Africa, and the management of diminishing fishery resources.

Almost all the world’s major powers have deployed substantial military forces in the Indian Ocean region. The US 5th Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain, and uses the island of Diego Garcia as a major air naval base and logistics hub for its Indian Ocean operations. France maintains a significant presence in the north and southwest Indian Ocean quadrants, with naval bases in Djibouti, Reunion and Abu Dhabi.

The region is rich in energy resources and minerals such as gold, tin, uranium, cobalt, nickel, aluminium and cadmium, and also contains abundant fishing resources.

Roughly 55 per cent of known oil reserves and 40 per cent of gas reserves are in the Indian Ocean region.

The Gulf and Arab states produce around 21 per cent of the world’s oil, with daily crude exports of up to 17,262 million barrels representing about 43 per cent of international exports.

The Indian Ocean has some of the world’s most important choke points, notably the Straits of Hormuz, Malacca and the Bab el Mandeb. As these choke points are strategically important for global trade and energy flow, a number of extra-regional states maintain a naval presence in the Indian Ocean.

Although the number of reported incidents of piracy have dropped dramatically, the International Maritime Bureau continues to report the territorial waters of littoral states and offshore waters as high risk for piracy and armed robbery against ships, particularly in the Gulf of Aden, along the east coast of Africa and the Strait of Malacca.

China’s aggressive soft power diplomacy has been widely seen as arguably the most important element in shaping the Indian Ocean strategic environment, transforming the entire region’s dynamics. By providing large loans on generous repayment terms, investing in major infrastructure projects such as the building of roads, dams, ports, power plants, and railways, and offering military assistance and political support in the UN Security Council through its veto power, China has secured considerable goodwill and influence among countries in the Indian Ocean region.

The increased significance of the Indian Ocean region in the world geopolitics is one of the reasons behind Washington’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy. It is meant to be a strategic “rebalancing” of US interests from Europe and West Asia towards Asia and the Pacific.

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