INDO PACIFIC SECURITY PERSPECTIVES : INDIAN NAVY CHIEF'S SIGNIFICANT PRESENCE AT QUAD NAVAL CHIEFS SUMMIT MEET IN TOKYO NOVEMBER 2022

Thursday, November 10, 2022

INDIAN NAVY CHIEF'S SIGNIFICANT PRESENCE AT QUAD NAVAL CHIEFS SUMMIT MEET IN TOKYO NOVEMBER 2022

Significantly strategic messaging stood conveyed by Indian Navy Chief Admiral Harikumar's presence in the opticals of the four Naval Chiefs of QUAD Navies posing together in a formal photograph of the QUAD Naval Chiefs Summit in Tokyo, Japan on November 05, 2022.

Significant it was, as if memory serves me correctly, this was the first time that a Naval Chiefs of QUAD Nations has taken place.

Significant strategically, was the conflictual backdrop of Indo Pacific prevailing turbulent security environment induced by China's saber-rattling over Taiwan, Chinese satellite North Korea's proxy missiles firings across Japan and the overhang of Russia Invasion of Ukraine casting shadows on IndoPacific security.

In a strategic triple whammy, which would not have gone unnoticed in Beijing, the QUAD Naval Chiefs Summit in Tokyo also coincided with Japan's Internatinal Fleet Review, commencement of the 'Malabar Navl Exercises' in Japanese seas of QUAD Navies and the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.

The Indian Naval Chief 's presence was scheduled at all these events.

Significantly, in my assessments over decades, is the reality that while Chinese Navy may be numerically stronger in numbers of Navy combatant ships, but the Japanese Navy is "Qualitatively Superior" and more powerful than the Beijing's Chinese Navy.

When QUAD Navy Chiefs main theme of discussion focusses on "Interoperability" then the strategic message should be amply clear. They had not met in Tokyo for a garden party!

Humanitarian and disaster relief missions overplayed by Indian diplomacy are overshadowed by the real intent of QUAD when it was resurrected in 2017. The real intent is checkmating China and the maritime threats that China poses in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Concluding, it needs to be stressed that India must invest more heavily on the strategic intents of QUAD Nations and make it more potent in naval terms. It should not be forgotten, as I have stressed in my writings and even on TV Channels, that India can keep the Indian Ocean as "Indian" against China's naval depredations only with deep collaboration of QUAD Nations Navies.

In overall pursuance of India's national security interests, India should now refrain from de-emphasizing of QUAD's real strategic intent. The QUAD Naval Chiefs Summit meet in Tokyo seems to be the first step in that direction.

When Q

No comments:

Dr Subhash Kapila—Academic & Professional Profile

Dr Subhash Kapila is a Graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College.UK.: has a Masters in Defence Science from Madras University with his thesis on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Far East Asia’ and a Doctorate from Allahabad University with his thesis in 1994 on ‘Asia Pacific Security-2000 AD Perspectives’.

Dr Subhash Kapila combines a rich and varied professional experience of Indian Army (Brigadier) in criteria appointments on Command, Staff and Instructional. Indian Army service encompassed long tenures on India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

Dr Subhash Kaila’s professional exposures also include diplomatic assignments in United States, Japan, South Korea and also official tenures in UK and Bhutan. These years of diplomatic and official assignments afforded deep insights on Asia Pacific security challenges and China-watching from different perches.

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored two books--- ‘China-India Military Confrontation:21^st Century Perspectives’ (2015) and an earlier one on India’s Defence Policies & Strategic Thought-A Comparative Analysis’ (2004)

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored over nearly 2000 Papers on Geopolitical, Foreign Policy and Strategic topics of Major Powers like USA, China, Japan and regional issues of South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Dr Subhash Kapila has presented Papers at international forums in Russia, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam and National and University Seminars in India.

Invited for TV/Radio discussions by CNN, BBC, Pakistan Geo TV and multiple Indian Channels.

INDO PACIFIC REGION—GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“Indo Pacific Region encompassing the vast geographical expanse from West Coast of the United States to the Eastern Littoral of Africa on the Indian Ocean and Australia in South Pacific has emerged in recent years as a fulcrum of global security and stability.

Competing security narratives led by the United States and a reactive hardly credible narrative by China challenges foreign policy and security policies directions of Major Powers in the Indo Pacific comprising United States. India, Japan and Australia.

Needless to highlight as so many academic treatises have already done so that Indo Pacific Security Template as a strategic construct and narrative emerged so as a narrative in the last decade generated by fears of China’s not so benign intentions manifested from Himalayan Heights of China Occupied Tibet borders with India to the Western Pacific seas, and more pointedly to the South China Sea where China has indulged in military aggression ad coercive brinkmanship to establish “Full Spectrum Dominance” endangering Indo Pacific Security as a whole.”------------Dr Subhash Kaila’s earlier writings.

“The Indo Pacific has assumed tectonic significance for a wide range of nations affirming their agency in an uncertain world. Far from being an obscure account of of words and maps, the narratives of Indo Pacific nations hands a great dilemma of the 21^st Century: how can other countries respond to a strong and coercive China without resorting to capitulation or conflict.” –Professor Rory Metcalf, Australian National University.

“In this century, the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim which some refer as the Indo Pacific will become the world’s centre of gravity.”---Australian Defence Minister