India has Strategic Intent in Indian Ocean: Dhowan

PANAJI: The Indian Navy plays an extremely crucial role in the global game of control of the seas and the centre of gravity is shifting towards the Indian Ocean, a role that Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Robin K Dhowan is well aware of. In Goa for the six-day Combined Operational Review and Evaluation programme, Dhowan spoke to The Times of India in a short tete-a-tete, outlining the major challenges for India's naval forces and its strategy to build bilateral relations with its neighbours. Excerpts of the interview: 

TOI: The geopolitical scenario has changed and new types of conflicts have evolved. What are those for the Indian Navy? 

Dhowan: The challenges that the Navy is focusing on are the challenges in the maritime domain. Today, we have challenges of piracy, terrorism in the maritime domain and asymmetric warfare. So coastal security has become very important. Therefore we have set up a network and associations by which we then look after these challenges. 

India nurtures hopes of being an economic superpower and power projection is vital... 

The Indian Ocean region is emerging as the world's centre of gravity in the maritime domain. This is a region where we have nearly 66% of the world's oil, 50% of the world's container traffic, 33% of the world's cargo traffic is passing through this region. India being a maritime nation, we have vast maritime interests. 90% of our trade is by sea. We have a huge coastline of 7,516 km. A huge exclusive economic zone, island territories, offshore oil requirements. All these create maritime interests which have a vital relationship with the country's economic growth. And the security umbrella for all the maritime interests is provided by the Navy.

What are the challenges for the Indian Navy in its bid to protect India's maritime interests? 

We need to have adequate force levels, so that we can be truly a multi-dimensional Navy which is combat-ready. And vast maritime interests mean the safety and security of the area around our waters. Now when you talk about force levels, about ships, submarines and aircraft, you need to have adequate infrastructure and that is the next challenge—to see that we have adequate infrastructure and the maintenance facilities to service our vessels. The third major challenge is the most important asset, the man behind the machine. You need to have adequate human resources and then train them to bring up and hone their operational skills so that they can man vessels. 

Human resources also includes women...

Women, of course. We have women in different branches. We have them in education, in logistics, in law, we have them as Air Traffic Controllers and we have them as naval constructors. At this point in time, we have opened up permanent commission for women only in a few sections. But we are progressively looking at it.

You are in Goa for the Combined Operational Review and Evaluation conference. Please tell us a bit more about the program. 

It is a unique opportunity where senior officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, ministry of defence and civil services of different specializations come together to undertake Combined Operational Readiness Evaluation. The Naval War College has put up a very extensive and detailed programme where they have brought speakers from different walks of life. These speakers are not only from the armed forces but also from the nuclear domain, industry, aspects related to the economy and related to finances. It is to give people at the higher echelons of the armed forces a full spectrum of exposure into what is happening in the country.

Obviously this includes regional security and strategy, including China? 

We discussed the geopolitical situation that exists because before you come to the aspects of strategy, you have to shape the maritime environment in the entire region. We look at our relationship with countries of the Indian Ocean region and the prime minister has described this very aptly, when he coined the term SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region). We have good relationships with all the Indian Ocean island countries like Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Indian Navy has increased the number of port calls and naval exercises. Is this a bid to enhance relations and build interoperability?

Currently our western fleet is visiting various countries in the Gulf. It has visited Iran and Kuwait, and is visiting Abu Dhabi, Qatar. With Australia we are having an exercise right now as we speak in Visakhapatnam. This is how we interact with the navies of the world and the navies of the region so that we can build and strengthen the bridges of friendship between the navies and this opens up avenues of cooperation between our countries.

In the last one year we have consolidated our efforts and we have looked at what are the areas of our interest. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are very close to our island territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. We have a very close relationship with them. With Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, and Seychelles, it is a different relationship. We have got information exchange, EEZ patrols. Then we have countries on the east coast of Africa and we have looked at the countries in the Gulf.

India's journey towards strategic autonomy has picked up pace with the government allowing private players to join the fray. What is your take on it? 

I see it as a very positive step because the Navy actually has been at the forefront in our quest for self-reliance and indigenization. Currently, we have 48 ships and submarines under construction both, in public as well as private shipyards. And the Navy was actually the first to involve various private shipyards. That has helped bring in competition. That has helped bring in price discovery. Currently, as I said, all our ships are being built in Indian shipyards. We haven't got any on order in foreign shipyards. That is a huge move towards 'Make in India'. It is our endeavour to increase indigenous content by involving both the public and private industry so that future warships are 100% made in India. And the raksha mantri's push for strategic partnership is a very positive step.