The Strategic Importance of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands
The Indian government needs to recognize
the value of India’s southeast border.
By Sunil Raman, January 03, 2016
In the Bay of Bengal, far removed from
the mainland, lie the 572 islands of Andaman and Nicobar, which form India’s
southeast border. While the northernmost part of the archipelago is only 22
nautical miles away from Myanmar, the southernmost point, called the Indira
Point, is a mere 90 nautical miles from Indonesia. These islands dominate the
Bay of Bengal and the Six Degree and Ten Degree channels which more than 60,000
commercial vessels traverse each year.
Among the nine major bottlenecks that
control entry to this region are the Malacca Strait and the Six Degree Channel.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in this strategically important zone,
meaning that India with its growing naval capabilities could play a significant
role in controlling access.
India’s Navy chief, Admiral R K Dhowan
recently acknowledged that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a “very very
important aspect” of India’s security, acting as extended arms of the country.
Dhowan said that India needed to deploy naval assets to the islands for
surveillance in important sea lines of communication.
Yet over the past 15 years successive
governments have been slow to act, even after having declared their intention
of beefing up the security infrastructure on the islands. A unified land, sea and
air command was created more than a decade ago, but the command still faces
turf wars, funding issues, and glacial decision making.
In the meantime, other countries –
notably China – have expanded their presence in the region. Naval vessels
camouflaged as fishing boats have been sighted, while other ships make port
visits to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The inability of India’s civilian
bureaucracy to recognize the geostrategic importance of the islands is evident
in the fact that the only radar station at Port Blair is switched off every
evening. When Malaysian authorities sought information about the missing MH370
from India there was none to share.
Soon after coming to power last year,
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi brushed aside environmental concerns and
cleared a decade-old proposal to set up a radar station on an island lying a
few miles from Coco Islands, which Myanmar has leased to China for the purpose
of setting up a listening post. Reportedly, infrastructure development on Coco
Islands was completed in short order, and besides a radar station the Chinese
have also built an airstrip. In contrast, India took ten years to decide to
build a radar station on the nearby Narcondam Islands.
Plans to improve the infrastructure are
welcome but the Modi government needs to acknowledge the strategic importance
of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and push an indifferent bureaucracy to faster
decision-making. India could be using these islands to project power into the
region and signal China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy about its readiness to
counter any intervention.
Of the 572 islands that make up the
Andaman and Nicobar group, only 37 are inhabited. The absence of a human
presence on hundreds of these islands has made them vulnerable to narcotics
smuggling, intrusion by foreign vessels, and other incursions. The home
ministry needs to seriously consider suggestions to encourage migration from
the mainland and open up some of these strategically located uninhabited
islands to tourism. That would give India a stronger physical footprint and
would help the country track the movement of vessels and people.
The northern islands are separated from
the southern group by the Ten Degree Channel, which is 80 nautical miles wide.
Close watch needs to be kept over the movement of ships and military vessels
that pass through these waters.
Recognition of the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands as strategic assets would ensure a change in government policy. The
slow pace of development and indifferent bureaucracy has ensured that after
several years an undersea cable link between India’s mainland and the islands
remains incomplete. Internet connectivity, even at the naval base in the
capital Port Blair, is reported to be erratic.
Road building, airstrip construction,
and even the building of jetties has been slow or non-existent. More than a
decade after the tsunami of 2004 an important road linking North with South has
still not been rebuilt.
Heavy rainfall restricts building
activity to six months a year and the distance from mainland adds to the cost
of construction as all material must be shipped to the islands. Few companies
are willing to work on the islands because of the distance and cost. For some
materials, importing from Indonesia would be far cheaper and more cost
effective than sending shipments from the Indian mainland.
Surveillance in the southern group of
islands is a major challenge. The destruction of the road by the tsunami has
meant that the two groups of islands are linked only by air and sea. Rather
than expedite the work, the pace of development has been caught up in red tape.
The landing strip on Campbell Bay is only 1,000 meters in length and plans to
extend it have moved slowly. The runway in capital Port Blair took more than
three years to repair.
While India wants to neutralize Chinese
presence in the region, the decision-making in New Delhi has been slow and
lacking in focus. Efforts to strengthen India’s military presence have not kept
pace with Chinese activity. Modi’s outreach to Japan, which has been added to
Malabar, hitherto a U.S.-India bilateral military exercise, signals a change in
direction by New Delhi, which has traditionally been very sensitive to Chinese
concerns.
Modi has an opportunity to make Andaman
and Nicobar Islands an important element of his “Act East Policy” of engaging
with countries in the region east of India. A policy of benign neglect towards
the islands should be transformed into something more robust, which develops
the island territories with an eye to India’s larger geopolitical interests.
Sunil Raman is a Delhi-based journalist
and author. In the last two decades he has worked with leading media
organizations including the BBC World Service and The Economic Times in Delhi,
London and Bangalore.