India plays globo cop off Somali coast as Western navies play safe

India’s historical links with eastern Africa coupled with the sub continent’s thirst for Africa’s resources and the need to safeguard oil imports through the Gulf of Aden have forced her to act tough on Somali pirates, writes policy analyst PATRICK MUTAHI

In the latest clash between international forces and Somali pirates off the country’s coast, on December 13, the Indian navy arrested 23 pirates in the Gulf of Aden as they prepared to pounce on a merchant vessel.

Leading the fight against piracy, the Indian warship INS Mysore, attacked two boats after receiving distress signals from Mv Gibe an Ethiopian-flagged ship that was about to be hijacked. Out of the 23 arrested pirates, 12 are reportedly from Somalia and 11 from Yemen. Fifteen rifles, two grenades and ammunition were seized from the pirates.

This incident is one of the many decisive actions that the Indian navy has come to be reputed for in the fight against piracy in the lawless Somalia waters. Most foreign navies patrolling that coast have been reluctant to detain suspected pirates because of uncertainties over where they would face trial, since Somalia has no effective central government or legal system.

Ironically, the Indian security apparatus has been accused of laxity in protecting its borders and in managing internal security leading to the recent Mumbai bombings.

However, the Indian navy — the fifth largest in the world — has shown that it is cut from different cloth and its entry may soon deal a permanent blow to Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The navy’s recent achievements attest to its transformation from a “brown water coastal defense force to a formidable blue water fleet,” writes David Scott, in the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies.

Maritime supremacy

Signs of India’s rapid economic and military rise to global prominence are all over the world — dimensions that have implications on how New Delhi relates to Africa.

India’s colonial history has tied a number of African-Indian Ocean rim countries to the Indian sub-continent since the 16th Century.

Mozambique was a staging post for the Portuguese in Goa and often used Indian rupees. The British East Africa protectorate (now Kenya and parts of Uganda) was originally administered from Bombay with the sub continent’s rupees the protectorate’s currency from 1897 to 1920.

Today a significant Indian diaspora is to be found in Eastern and Southern Africa, particularly in Mauritius, Kenya and South Africa. India has its most comprehensive diplomatic presence in this part of Africa, with embassies or high commissions in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius.

Now the Sub-continent seems to have reverted to its former colonial masters, (Britain and Portugal in Goa) game plan — using the same historical trade connections and the Indian Ocean route to make a foot print in Africa and across the world.

Since the late 1990s India’s attempt to strengthen its maritime status has gathered pace. During its 2006 Navy Day, New Delhi announced that it was transforming the force to a blue water fleet. Technically, a blue water navy is able to operate over 320 kilometres from shore, in other words it is a long-range, deep-water, oceanic maritime projection bringing with it sea power.

Presently, the Indian Navy operates more than 155 vessels, including INS Viraat, the only aircraft carrier in Asia with jet fighters aboard. This has made it one of the most powerful naval forces of the region.

The build up by the world’s largest democracy is multifaceted: economically for market and resources, politically for international influence and support for possible permanent membership in the UN Security Council.

India is also competing with China for influence in Africa. Eleven per cent of its oil is imported from Africa (mostly Nigeria), but the rapidly industrialising state is seeking more — especially from Angola — leading, in some cases, to direct competition with China.

Uranium for her reactors

The country is also searching for secure, long-term uranium supplies to feed its nuclear reactors, as well as other strategic minerals, meaning that South Africa is emerging as a key partner.

The Asian giant is involved in a tripartite alliance with Brazil and South Africa under the IBSA Dialogue Forum. This is an effective co-operative approach to build a bridge between Asia and Africa.

The alliance was set when the leaders of three rising giants, India’s Atal  Bihari  Vajpayee, Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, and South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki introduced a new approach to south-south cooperation at the 2003 UN General Assembly, resulting in a trilateral India-Brazil-South Africa agreement.

IBSA has amplified its presence through numerous joint ventures. More importantly, India views the IBSA Free-Trade Agreement with Brazil and South Africa as a “distinct possibility” of enhancing trade relationship with these countries.

In addition, the defence ministers of the troika agreed in Pretoria on February 1, 2004, to hold joint military exercises and train their personnel.
India is also using the forum to enhance its maritime cooperation in order to boost regional security. Notably, both Delhi and Pretoria have long coastlines and maritime interests.

India has a 2.2 million square kilometres of exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while South Africa’s is half as large at a million square kilometres.

Around 90 per cent of the exports of both countries pass through the sea. In addition, South Africa has six well-developed ports and a sound maritime infrastructure, with good facilities for ship repair and potential to get involved in shipbuilding.

Due to this strategic interest, New Delhi in March 2006 signed an agreement with Pretoria to improve cooperation in merchant shipping and other related activities. The agreement provides for facilitating Indian companies to establish joint ventures in maritime transportation, and ship building/repairs. Furthermore, the pact will also facilitate the exchange of information for accelerating the flow of commercial goods at sea and at port and encourage the strengthening of cooperation between merchant fleets.

However, piracy off the coast of Somalia has caused significant concerns in India. Indians comprise one-sixth of the world’s maritime workers; some 30 Indian-owned ships pass through the Gulf of Aden, laden with oil and other merchandise worth $100 billion, every month.

Hence the emerging super power has to protect its citizens and economic interests.

The Indian Navy has responded to these security concerns by deploying the frigate INS Tabar in the Gulf of Aden in October. Within a month of its deployment, the Tabar had prevented attempts by pirates to board two cargo ships.

As of November 11, the frigate had escorted 35 ships safely through the pirate-infested region.

Destroyed Thai fishing boat

There were also reports of India deploying the destroyer INS Mysore to augment the frigate INS Tabar in anti-piracy operations. In an unprecedented move, on November 21, India was granted permission to enter Somalia territorial waters to intercept suspected pirate vessels.

India’s rising influence in the seas is not without mishaps. Last month, New Delhi drew criticism after sinking a Thai fishing trawler that had been commandeered hours earlier by pirates. At least one Thai crew member was killed in the attack, which the Indian navy had originally announced by saying it had sunk a pirate “mother ship.” It defended its actions, saying it had fired in self-defense.

However, the recent activities have seen India asserting itself as the de facto sea power in the Indian Ocean which is considered as its natural zone of pre-eminence.

According to India’s External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee is on record as saying that “within the larger maritime canvas, it is our nation’s military maritime power - as embodied by the Indian Navy… that is the enabling instrument that allows all the other components of maritime power to be exercised.”

This was echoed by Admiral Sureesh Mehta who took over as Chief of Naval Staff on October 31, 2006.

In an interview with India Express he said, “we want our navy to operate in waters far away from home. Our ships have to be placed at distant places. If our ships are present far away from home, we can do something to raise the prestige of the nation.”

Maritime surveillance

The Indian Navy has been transformed into a useful state instrument for “navy diplomacy.” Along the East African coast, India has signed defense agreements with Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. It has also initiated joint training programmes with Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa.

Delhi has also convinced island states such as Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles to cooperate on maritime surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Indian warships have been regular visitors in Mauritius - INS Savitri in September 2004, her advanced missile frigate INS Tabar in July 2004, and INS Sharda in April 2005.

Work carried out by INS Sarvekshak around Mauritius in April 2006 gave rise to talk of the Indian Navy setting a base at Mauritius’ Agalega Island. Apart from general port call signified by flag waving, these visits have also been part of the Mauritius-Indian agreement drawn up in 2003, whereby the Indian Navy would henceforth monitor Mauritius’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

Furthermore, INS Ranjit and INS Suvarna were deployed in June-July 2003 for training and security purposes in and off Maputo, including providing protection to the African Union Summit taking place in Mozambique.

INS Sujata and INS Savitri provided security cover to the three-day World Economic Forum in Mozambique during June 2004. Links with Mozambique have been strengthened, the two countries signing a memorandum of understanding in March 2006, whereby India agreed to mount maritime patrols off the Mozambique coast.

South Africa has been a scene of further naval outreach. June 2005 saw INS Trishul and INS Aditya docking at Durban, followed by the arrival of INS Delhi and INS Ganga at Cape Town, and combined naval drills with the South African navy. Indian naval units are also reportedly due to be dispatched to the waters around Cape Town in May 2008, in order to take part in tri-lateral exercises with the Brazilian and South African navies.

On the global scene, India’s bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council is unequivocally backed by permanent members France, Russia, United Kingdom and China.

Security Council seat

Though initially opposed by the Chinese due to geo-political reasons (China being an ally of India’s arch-rival Pakistan and the country also having fought a brief war with India in 1962), Beijing has of late backtracked to support New Delhi’s candidature.

During their visits to New Delhi in January, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only supported the Indian case for a permanent seat in the UN. They also went a step further, calling for the reforming of the other international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF as well as inducting India into the Group of 8 -- the exclusive club of the developed and highly industrialised countries.

“India is the world’s largest democracy and one of the fastest growing economies in the world… it should get its rightful place. I support changes to the World Bank, the IMF and G-8 that reflect the rise of India and Asia,” Brown said at a breakfast meting with Indian and British industry leaders in New Delhi.

“The post- (World War II) rules of the game and the post-war international institutions fit for the Cold War and a world of just 50 states, must be radically reformed to fit our world of globalisation,” he said. 

While the British Prime Minister was more emphatic for India and other developing countries finding a voice on the World Bank and IMF boards, Sarkozy took up the case of opening up G-8 to other emerging economies such as China and India. 

“How can we organise a meeting of G-8 for two and a half days and invite the G-6 for lunch on Day 3?” France, he said, will not accept this injustice.

The African Union and India traded support for the UN Security Council seats during the April 2008 Africa-Indian forum. In the final communiqué both parties agreed to work together in revitalising and enhancing the role of the General Assembly, reform and expansion of the Security Council. This included supporting each other’s bid for a permanent seat in the Security Council.

Taking into account its huge population and growing economic and political clout, India is a strong contender for the seat. That India has participated in several UN operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus, Cambodia, Yemen, Somalia,  Rwanda , Namibia and the Sinai Peninsula, among others bolsters its candidature.

New Delhi’s own naval rise has also been in part a reaction to China’s own blue water naval aspirations as well as competition for Africa’s resources, especially oil.

Enter the Chinese

Beijing is increasingly becoming Africa’s most prominent economic partner while New Delhi lags behind in the competition for Africa’s resources and trade. In 2007, Sino-Africa trade significantly increased to $65.9 billion, compared to India’s $30 billion. According to Beijing’s General Administration of Customs, bilateral trade between China and Africa will exceed $100 billion in 2008, two years earlier than predicted. China had expected trade to hit that mark by 2010.

In an unprecedented move which shows growing concern over piracy, China is considering sending its navy to the Somali coast. Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei recently told the United Nations that “China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future.”

If the deployment takes place, it would be the first active deployment of Chinese warships beyond the Pacific showing Africa’s strategic importance to Beijing.

About 60 per cent of China’s imported oil comes from the Middle East, and the bulk of it passes through the Gulf of Aden along with huge shipments of raw materials out of Africa. Just last month, two Chinese ships were hijacked there, a fishing trawler and a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship carrying wheat.

Historically, even when other superpowers have taken their navies to the high seas, China it has kept its flag down. Now China says its increasingly high-tech military forces are purely for defensive purposes. (It has traditionally kept troops close to home and out of international operations, reflecting a doctrine of non-interference in other nations’ affairs.) But, China’s growing wealth and influence have led to calls for it to take a greater role protecting world peace, even as Western nations fret about its increasing military power.

With Chinese deployment, the Indian Ocean may also yet provide another space for China and India to project their military power as they safeguard their national interests.

Undoubtedly, India’s naval power is quickly coming of age. It is expected to spend about $40 billion on military modernisation from 2008 to 2013.

With the recent and ongoing upgrades and inductions, independent analysts expect the Indian navy to soon become a fully accomplished blue-water navy.

It is already among the most powerful in the region and with further upgrades in the future, the world’s fifth largest navy aims to control the Indian Ocean from the coast of East Africa to Australia. Ultimately, India may just help the East African coast get rid of piracy.