Relevance : GS Paper II
Theme of the Article
As Beijing races ahead in quest for a military footprint, Delhi has some catching up to do.
Introduction
Unlike in the past, when India operated as a lone ranger in the Indian Ocean, Delhi is now making its armed forces interoperable with its friends and partners.
India’s response to China’s growing foreign Military bases
India’s response so far has developed along three axes.
- One is to counter potential threats from China’s military bases in its immediate neighbourhood.
- Second, to strengthen military partnerships with its friends and partners to balance China.
- The third is to emulate Beijing’s quest for foreign military presence.
Competition for foreign Military bases
- That China and India compete for foreign military bases is not merely an extension of their very familiar rivalry but a definitive moment in their overall political evolution as modern states.
- Few nations have been so vehement in their opposition to foreign military bases. Few nations, now, appear under as much compulsion as China and India to seek them.
- While Beijing is racing ahead in the search for foreign military presence, Delhi has some catching up to do.
- Nations began to see the question of foreign military bases not through the lens of ideology but of security interests.
- India, which vigorously objected to US military alliances in Asia and Pakistan’s participation in them, eventually built an alliance-like relationship with the Soviet Union. The objective was to balance the US and Chinese alliances with Pakistan.
- Today, China is already a great power and India is rising, slowly but certainly.
- As China’s economic interests begin to span the entire globe, it was inevitable that Beijing would try and secure them eventually through its own military means. That is what all great powers do.
- China, recently, established its first military base in Djibouti in 2017. There will be more.
- Pakistan has the precedent of hosting foreign military bases. Pakistan is undoubtedly China’s closest political and military partner. While there is no formal “base”, the integration of Pakistan into China’s military strategy and operations has steadily advanced.
Why India should have Military bases
- The logic of Delhi’s quest for foreign military bases is very similar to that of China.
- India’s growing and globalised economy is now close to $3 trillion and Delhi’s political ambition is to raise it to $5 trillion in the next five years.
- Delhi’s security imperatives are no longer limited to its borders and it needs to secure its widely dispersed interests with forward military presence in the Indo-Pacific.
What India is doing in this direction
- Unlike in the past, when India operated as a lone ranger in the Indian Ocean, Delhi is now making its armed forces interoperable with its friends and partners.
- After prolonged reluctance, India has signed agreements with the US and France for mutual peacetime use of military bases. It is a matter of time before it signs such agreements with other powers like Japan and Australia.
- In the third leg of India’s strategy, Delhi is seeking access to military facilities in a number of countries.
