RED SEA ATTACKS: SHOULD INDIAN NAVY JOIN US-LED NAVAL COALITION?

India's rise as a global power and the growing expectations from its partners that it should play an active role in the Indo-Pacific appears to be on a test in the Red Sea, adversely affected by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. PRAKASH NANDA examines the pros and cons.

- PRAKASH NANDA

There is the first major “ideological question” whether India should involve itself in areas and issues where it is not exactly “a party.” Should India play “power politics” by going beyond its traditional so-called “nonaligned” image?

There is the additional question of whether India has the capacity to play such an active role, given its tight military budgets, lack of clarity on the defence-command structure, and absence of “unity in strategic thought across the many echelons of the government.”

Based on these two questions, critics in India are demanding a serious debate on the decision of the Narendra Modi-led government that India should be the “net security provider” in the region.

They say that this concept of being a “net security provider” unnecessarily complicates the task of the Indian Navy, which is rather happy being only “a preferred partner” or “the first responder” in a developing crisis, humanitarian or otherwise.

It may be noted that in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war in October, the Red Sea, the shipping artery for 12 per cent of global commerce and about 30 per cent of the world’s container shipping, has been in the news for the periodic attack to the commercial ships by missiles and drones from Iran supported Houthi rebels of Yemen. Some of these attacked ships, like a Gabon-flagged crude oil tanker (‘MV Sai Baba’), had Indian crew.

On December 23, a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker, the MV Chem Pluto, was attacked by drones in the adjoining Arabia Sea, 200 miles from India’s Porbandar coast, and this ship had a crew of 20 Indians.