“Evolving Entente”: Geostrategic Import of the Coming Bay of Bengal Naval Exercise
Ramtanu Maitra
Executive Intelligence Review, 27 July 2007
Come September, India will host a major naval exercise in the strategic Bay of Bengal, located between mainland India, Bangladesh
, and the western shores of Myanmar
, Thailand, and Malaysia
, Indian Defense Ministry officials report.
The war manoeuvre will bring together naval forces from four other countries:Australia, Japan, Singapore, and theUnited States
. The 20 warships that will participate include two nuclear aircraft carriers from the United States, the USS Nimitz
and USS Kitty Hawk
, and one non-nuclear carrier from India, the INS Viraat
. In addition, the five-day manoeuvres will also see in action shore-based Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft of the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy’s Sea Harrier jets and Sea King helicopters from the INS Viraat.
Indian defense officials point out that the location of the planned naval exercise has been chosen to maintain distance from the arc of the Pacific Ocean, and skirts the borders of Russia and China where such moves could arouse Beijing’s sensitivities.
From all available accounts, it can be assumed that the September naval exercise will be the biggest held in the region by far. Last April, the United States, Japan, and India conducted their first joint naval exercises off the Japanese coast. That was a one-day goodwill exercise, as one Indian official pointed out, and did not involve many manoeuvres.
The Mysore, an Indian guided-missile destroyer, along with two U.S. destroyers and three escort ships of Japan’s Self-Defense Force (SDF), were among the vessels that took part in the exercise off Chiba prefecture (state) on Japan’s eastern coast, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry. No doubt the September exercises will be dramatically different.
A Troubled Area
The manoeuvres will take place at a time and place of great instability, much of which has spun off from the Anglo-American reactions to the 9/11 event. Not far from where the September exercise will take place is the Persian Gulf, the cockpit of the current Iraq conflict, and potential attack on Iran.
The situation in Iraq is deteriorating every day, and the fear of involvement of citizens, if not of the governments of Iraq’s neighbors, in this civil war looms large. The presence of about 200,000 foreign troops, of which 170,000 are from the United States, and almost 30,000 private, armed security forces, mostly from western countries, have not succeeded in drawing down the level of violence which exceeds 100 deaths every day in Iraq.
East of Iraq, the United States and the NATO member-nations have been engaged for over five years in trying to physically eliminate the Islamist Taliban militants, who have been entrenched in Afghanistan since 1996. The invaders’ self-proclaimed war on terror was launched soon after the 9/11 event. continue reading…
