India Will Not Join 1,000-Ship Navy Concept

[indian dream]

NEW DELHI - The Indian Navy will not join any multilateral groupings, putting to rest the possibility of Indian participation in the U.S.-mooted concept of a 1,000-ship navy.

Addressing the naval commanders here, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony ruled out India joining such a group unless it is under a U.N. mandate, said a Defence Ministry statement.


While India will join maritime cooperation in the region against terrorism and piracy, there is no plan to join any broader multilateral grouping, a Defence Ministry official said.

The 1,000-ship navy concept, espoused by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, envisioned an operational partnership of naval and coastal forces from friendly countries around the world.

The remarks by Antony also have cast doubt on the U.S.-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative, the Container Security Initiative and the Regional Maritime Security Initiative, said a Defence Ministry source.

In the context of the recent terrorist attack at a naval base in neighboring Pakistan, Antony said, "The challenges of the Indian Ocean rim, and the volatile neighborhood we live in, make it imperative for us to maintain operational readiness at all times. Recent incidents in our neighborhood have strongly underlined the need to maintain constant vigil. The Navy needs to take stock of the level of operational preparedness from time to time."

Turning to coastal security, Antony said the government has made considerable progress in plugging the gaps, but a lot more needs to be done. Various agencies need to adopt a far more collaborative and cooperative approach, according to the ministry statement.

India Will Not Join 1,000-Ship Navy Concept - Defense News

 

[pmukherjee]

Excellent!!! India should always refrain from joining formal military groupings, unless they are short term and with a specific mandate to address an emerging crisis which needs immediate attention. And such alliances if ever they happen should dissolve once the objectives are met. We do not want an unequal partnership with a super power, we do not wish to make other's problems our own. At last, the GOI seems to be getting things right.

 

[dbc]

Excellent!!! India should always refrain from joining formal military groupings, unless they are short term and with a specific mandate to address an emerging crisis which needs immediate attention. And such alliances if ever they happen should dissolve once the objectives are met. We do not want an unequal partnership with a super power, we do not wish to make other's problems our own. At last, the GOI seems to be getting things right.

I little clarity on the subject will help those perhaps not as well informed as pmukherjee .

“Membership in this ‘navy’ is purely voluntary and would have no legal or encumbering ties. It would be a free-form, self-organizing network of maritime partners — good neighbors interested in using the power of the sea to unite, rather than to divide. The barriers for entry are low. Respect for sovereignty is high.”

Mullen has been tireless over the past year in preaching the virtues of global maritime cooperation and urging the formulation of the TSN. Examples of the concept in action that he frequently cites include:

• Humanitarian assistance operations after the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan.

• International rescue efforts to save the crew of a trapped Russian minisub off Petropavlovsk in August 2005.

• Maritime evacuation operations in Lebanon in July after the Israeli invasion of that country.

In those operations, navies “self-organized — in free-form style — with no treaty or alliance, and seamlessly accomplished a vital mission,” Mullen said in recent addresses.

 

[pmukherjee]

I little clarity on the subject will help those perhaps not as well informed as pmukherjee .

None of those examples cited by you above can be called military alliances. These are basically disaster management or humanitarian issues where the assets of the relevant navies would be utilised to save lives. Why do you need to formalise it? Haven't we seen practically the whole world turning out in support of the Japanese recently? That too without any formal mutual arrangement. When you use the word 'A Thousand Ship Navy', the image which comes to the mind is not exactly disaster relief. We are already coordinating and carrying out joint exercises for anti terrorist and anti piracy missions with a number of navies including yours. My contention was that India does not need to be in any NATO like grouping. That was also what the defence minister meant, I suppose.