AMBASSADORS OF THE NATION

Geography, it is said, is the handmaiden of strategy, and geography has been kind to India. Our vantage position, atop an ocean named after us, provides us the ideal leverage to build maritime partnerships. The Indian Navy has been a key player in the bid to position India as the maritime power of consequence in the Indian Ocean Region. The Navy’s strengths of tactical mobility, reach and deterrence have played an important role in furthering our national interests abroad and naval diplomacy today finds an important place in the lexicon of international relations.

Incidentally the concept of combined exercises is not a new one, with the Indian Navy having been a regular participant in the Joint Exercises at Trincomalee (JET), involving the Commonwealth navies. However in the sixties, with the British shifting back west of the Suez and the near concurrent outbreak of the Cold War, India, with her non-aligned status, took a conscious decision not to conduct military exercises with either bloc. The end of the Cold War and the changing geo-political situation coincided with the military and economic resurgence of India. This provided us the ideal backdrop to re-engage with global navies. The concept of ‘Reaching out to our Maritime Neighbours’ has strengthened links with like-minded navies, particularly in areas like assistance efforts in crises, training and material support.

The Navy has been a major protagonist in India’s focused impetus to build these ‘Bridges of Friendship’. Consequently, both our fleets have been actively engaged in bilateral exercises with several navies across the seas.

A major determinant in this expanding role of the Navy as a tool of diplomacy is combined naval exercises. These exercises have now been institutionalized and have become permanent features in the Navy’s annual operations calendar providing an amalgam of both formal and informal interactions amongst the participants. While they have served as forums for discussing operational concepts and a meeting ground to complement our fighting skills, these events have also brought the fighting men and women of the Navies closer, forming professional friendships. Perhaps the comfort levels achieved in operating, despite the use of vastly different military hardware, is due to the shared commonality of the maritime environment and the traditional sense of camaraderie that has bonded seafarers since times immemorial. These exercises by naval fleets at sea, have additionally led to greater transparency and better understanding of each others’ perceptions, providing the mutual confidence to enhance navy to navy cooperation at the highest levels.

What is noteworthy is that India, although not a member of any military alliance today enjoys an excellent working relationship with navies the world over. Associations like these reflect the new strategic equation between India and these global powers. The navy has maintained this momentum of operational interaction, laying the ideal foundation upon which the complete spectrum of defence, political and diplomatic cooperation can subsequently be systematically strengthened.

In keeping with the finest traditions of naval diplomacy, the Indian Navy’s warships and their men have truly become the nation’s Ambassadors, flying our flag and spreading goodwill across the seas.

(Cdr Kartik Murthy has commanded the Xtra Fast Attack Craft T 80 and is presently in command of the missile corvette INS Vipul. This article appeared in the supplementary edition, The Indian Navy, of the Indian Express on December 4, 2011)