New Delhi: Without prior notice to Indian authorities, on Wednesday, US guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, came inside Indian waters to within 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea, sparking off speculation whether all was well in the India-US relationship.
The same ship had also violated Maldivian laws on the same day in a similar manner raising pertinent questions on US behaviour especially with friendly countries.
India is considered a ‘strategic partner' of the US.
This area near the Lakshadweep Islands is considered part of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which extends to 200 nautical miles into the sea from the India coast.
A release by the US Navy’s 7th fleet said that the US Navy ship “asserted navigational rights and freedoms… inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law.”
“This freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging India’s excessive maritime claims,” the statement said making it amply clear that the incident was neither a mistake nor a result of any misunderstanding.
“India requires prior consent for military exercises or manoeuvres in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law,” the statement added.
Indian Reaction
The incident drew a tepid response from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday evening.
The MEA statement said: “We have conveyed our concerns regarding this passage through our EEZ to the Government of U.S.A through diplomatic channels.”
“The Government of India’s stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state.”
“The USS John Paul Jones was continuously monitored transiting from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits. We have conveyed our concerns regarding this passage through our EEZ to the Government of U.S.A through diplomatic channels.”
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The statement was in marked contrast to India having forced a Chinese Navy research vessel Shi Yan 1 to move away after the ship had entered Indian waters near the Andaman Islands in November 2019.
Indian Navy’s chief Admiral Karmabir Singh had then said: “Our stand is that if you have to work in our Exclusive Economic Zone, then you have to take our permission.”
A Puzzle
What was puzzling was not the transgression itself but the making public of the event that was seen to be in brazen violation of India’s domestic maritime laws.
It is not the first time that US Navy warships have transgressed into Indian waters in such a manner.
According to the US Department of Defense, the US Navy conducted an operation in the Indian Ocean region during the period of October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019, “to preserve the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations by international law”.
CDS Statement
Interestingly, on the same day, a statement by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat during an event organized by Vivekananda India Foundation, a leading think-tank in the national capital, too raised questions on whether the India-US bilateral relationship is encountering turbulence.
Gen Rawat had sought to disapprove the impression that India had joined the US camp in the backdrop of the ‘Quad’ platform. He had said in his address: “Moving beyond an articulated document, India’s engagements in the geo-strategic spectrum reflect the fierce reinforcing of the policy of ‘Strategic Autonomy’ by not entering into any stifling military alliance… We have preferred strategic partnerships on equal terms, rather than compromising our autonomy on strategic issues by towing the party line of alliances”.
Interestingly, CDS Gen Rawat also marked out, for the first time, India’s strategic geography. “Our strategic space extends from the Persian Gulf in the West to the straits of Malacca in the East, and from the Central Asian Region in the North to near the equator in the South has been the centre of world’s geopolitics and geostrategic affairs for over two decades now, witnessing violent confrontations, as also use of coercion and hybrid tactics by some powers to retain strategic advantage.”
The Quad Platform
The recent developments may be part of President Joe Biden trying to systematically undo his predecessor Donald Trump’s policies of which the formation of the ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ or ‘Quad’, an informal grouping comprising India, US, Australia and Japan, was the central tenet to contain a rising China.
Trump had specifically designed to position the ‘Quad’ to stand up to China’s escalatory and challenging military moves with India as well as over Taiwan across the East China and South China seas.
In Trump’s scheme of things, the role of NATO—originally erected to counter a Soviet Russia—would be much diluted with the Trump-initiated US foreign policy primarily focused on China.
President Biden has made it abundantly clear that he wants to engage China as a competitor on other fronts but not through ‘Quad’.
Just after the first ever ‘Quad’ summit held virtually on March 12, Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser (NSA), had cleared the matter in a White House briefing: “Quad is not a military alliance; it’s not a new NATO, despite some of the propaganda that’s out there. What it is, is an opportunity for these four democracies to work as a group, and also with other countries, on fundamental issues of economics, technology, climate, and security.”
“What we know is that broad-based maritime security is already core to the Quad agenda, that humanitarian assistance and disaster response and the work of our militaries in that space is already on the agenda. Where we go from there on everything from freedom of navigation to broader regional security questions, that has to be worked through, not just at the leaders level but at the working level as well,” the US NSA had added.
Clearly, the US warship transgression incident in Indian waters is not a one-off incident which underlines that there may be more obstacles to a smooth India-US relationship than is ever acknowledged as well as put India’s doctrine of ‘Strategic Autonomy’ to a severe test.
