India and the USA have been considering formally entering into a comprehensive agreement, which would allow the US to utilise Indian Naval Dockyards for the purposes of the upkeep of the US Navy.
Termed as ‘ Naval Logistics Hubs’, the dockyards stipulated in the agreement, would provide services of refuelling, repair, maintenance, servicing and overhauling to the ships and submarines of the US Navy.
An agreement for the port at Chennai to function as a Naval Logistics Hub has already been signed and stamped, while the ports at Mumbai and Goa are expected to be included soon. The general view among experts in the field is that the ports of Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Kolkata and even INS Dweeprakshak in the Laccadive archipelago and Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands may be added to the list by the close of the decade.
While, these hubs may not be specifically classified as Naval Bases, nothing is stopping the two countries, the USA and India, from treating the hubs, for all intents and purposes, as Joint Naval Bases. Under the natural obligations of the agreement, separate refuelling berths, dry docks and stores for maintaining spare parts would be provided to the US Navy.
Ordinarily a Naval Logistics Hub would entail that Captains, Commanders, Admirals and other naval staff would be permitted to stay aboard their ship or at hotels in the port city while they also are entitled to move in a limited radius around the port. These privileges would essentially be congruous with the rights enjoyed by foreign sailors of a Merchant Navy vessel.
Additionally, the US navy personnel, their Marines and other sailors could also be allowed to remain in the port city for extended durations, simply by manipulating the log book to reflect that their respective ships or submarines are in need of long haul repairs and maintenance.
However, it is not impossible to imagine a situation, where India provides the US with a large campus complete with a secured ring-fence. The campus could easily house barracks, officer’s quarters and a mess, administrative offices, warehouses and even a weapon depot. This area could easily function under the flag of the US Navy, while the people residing within, could carry out naval drills in the sea and ceremonial events on land. Furthermore, the security detail and installations within the campus could be administered directly by the Americans. Such an arrangement would basically let the campus operate as a regular US Naval Base.
The concessions given by the US government during the Indian Prime Minister’s recent state visit had left many wondering how the USA was benefiting in return. It appears that the most obvious advantage is the access to Indian docks.
It is no secret that the US has long lamented its relative military and naval absence in the Indian Ocean. Collaboration with the Indian Navy will let the US secure a major foothold in the region, extending from the Middle East and Eastern Africa all the way to Indonesia. A singular American warship, armed with cruise missiles, docked at Haldia would put the whole of Eastern Eurasia within reach. Most significantly this set up would enable the US Navy to reduce its assets deployed in the South China Sea, Sea of Japan and the Strait of Taiwan and instead exert pressure on China through the Indian Ocean.
The Northern and Western parts of China are largely secure from belligerency. However, the same cannot be said about Eastern China, which also happens to be the most prosperous region of the nation, since it is vulnerable to attack from the sea. The agreement between India and the USA would prove to be a major threat for China as it further weakens its southern front.
Not just China, but also other authoritarian regimes in the region such as those of Myanmar and Cambodia would also view this Indo-US agreement as unsavoury. Even mere sightings of US warships or detection of sonar signatures of US submarines, in the northern waters of the Andaman Sea, would be sufficient to put the Junta of Myanmar on edge. These warships should be considered all the more dangerous as the surveillance equipment aboard the vessels can easily intercept communication between military leaders and high ranking officials of the Junta. The same holds true for the leaders of the CPP, Cambodian People’s Party that has forced their country into a One Party Authoritarian Regime. If and when Port Blair is included in the agreement, the whole of South-East Asia would be under the control of the USA and by extension India too would exercise significant control over the area. India itself is now a dominant regional naval power and such cooperation will tilt the power dynamic into one that is overwhelmingly Indo-US favoured.
It would be remiss in one’s assumption that the arrangement is one sided. India too has agreements in place with the US for the purposes of refuelling, repair and maintenance of its vessels.
In the current environment, it is more than clear that the US will continue to remain dominant as far as the Eastern Pacific Ocean and corresponding coastal countries are concerned. The USA, at present has strategically placed around 400,000 naval and military personnel in the Pacific Ocean, which helps them patrol around 100 million square kilometers that equates to about 52% of the total surface area of the Earth. In the Pacific, the Indo-Pacific 4 of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand already assist the US in cementing their potency.
Even though the USA has been leased the island of Diego Garcia by the UK, the former still lacks a substantial presence in the Indian Ocean. The logistics hub agreement with India could be the solution to this issue as it would help increase the area the US navy could surveil. The agreement would also expand the boundary of Indo-Pacific cooperation between India and the US by brining the Indian Ocean, adjoining sea islands, ASEAN countries and other countries of the Western Pacific into the fold.
India is also the ideal choice for the Americans to attempt to establish a presence in the Indian Ocean, given the fact that India’s already dominant navy and largely peninsular shape gives it immediate and effective access to the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and most importantly the Indian Ocean.
Pranjal Pandey is a lawyer by profession and Ajay is technocrat turned bureaucrat. Views are personal.