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Indian Warships Staying in PG, Won't Join U.S. Coalition
Indian warships escorting merchant vessels in the
Persian Gulf will remain deployed for the longer term, officials
with direct knowledge of the matter said, as tensions between
Iran and Western powers rise.
But the two ships, backed by surveillance aircraft, will not be
part of a military coalition that the United States is assembling
to safeguard the waters off Iran near the Straits of Hormuz,
through which a fifth of the world's oil moves, the two officials
said.
Since June following attacks on tankers that the United States
blamed on Iran and Iran-aligned fighters, a charged Tehran
denies, the Indian navy ships have been escorting Indian-flagged
vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
"This is not going to stop, the situation being what it is, we
will be there for the foreseeable future," said an official with
knowledge of naval deployments.
India's navy, which has traditionally operated closer to home
waters, has over past year or so begun deployments across the
Indian Ocean stretching from the Malacca Strait in Southeast Asia
to waters off Africa, largely as a response to China's expanding
weight across the region.
But the maritime operation in the Gulf is also to heed U.S.
President Donald Trump's call that major buyers of Middle East
oil protect their own tankers, a second Indian official with
knowledge of India's policy on the region said.
The issue figured during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting
with Trump on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Japan last month
and Modi told the U.S. leader he had sent ships to protect
Indian-flagged vessels, the official said.
Trump has been putting pressure on European and Asian allies to
shoulder security responsibilities and not depend on the United
States alone.
Deepening regional tensions, Iran said on Thursday it had seized
a foreign tanker smuggling fuel in the Gulf, and the U.S.
military commander in the region said the United States would
work "aggressively" to ensure free passage of vessels.
REFUELING
On Friday, U.S. officials will speak to members of the Washington
diplomatic corps about the new initiative to promote freedom of
navigation and maritime security around the Strait of Hormuz, the
State Department said.
New Delhi will not be formally joining such a force, in large
measure because that would pit it directly against Iran, with
which it has had historical political and energy ties. It also
has never been part of foreign military task forces, preferring
to work under the United Nations flag instead, the first official
said.
India is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil after China.
"We will be carrying out the force protection measures on our own
for Indian-flagged vessels. So far, nearly two dozen ships have
been provided security," the official said.
But there is coordination with the U.S. military with which India
has a logistics support agreement, the official said.
Indian naval ships operating in the Gulf have been fueled by the
large fleet of U.S. tankers and such assistance will remain
because of the indefinite length of operation, the official said.
There have been no incidents so far involving Indian commercial
shipping in the vital waterways.
"I surmise in a conflict we will be neutral. We will be drawn
into it only if our shipping is hit," said former Indian naval
officer Abhijit Singh, who heads the Maritime Policy Initiative
think-tank at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
Singh said Indian navy ships had sailed in the Persian Gulf
earlier though never exclusively to escort merchant marine.
About 15 Indian ships - destroyers, frigates, corvettes and large
patrol vessels - are operating at the entry and exit points of
the Indian Ocean, stretching from the Malacca Strait, through
which much of China's trade and fuel is routed, to the Gulf of
Aden in the west.
Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani
Jul 18, 2019
