This is a discussion on The South Asian Strategic Game within the Geo-Strategic Defense forum, part of the Global Defense & Military category; This thread is to discuss the South Asian Strategic Actions that Nations undertake alone and in partnerships. It would include ...
The South Asian Strategic Paradigm - News, Updates & Discussions
This thread is to discuss the South Asian Strategic Actions that Nations undertake alone and in partnerships. It would include the Geo-political relationships and activities undertaken between India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and their Neighbors like China, Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar etc
To Start on a positive news
Quote:
Pak returning Indian chopper 'very good step': US
The US has described Pakistan returning an Indian chopper which had strayed into its territory as a "very, very good step" and hoped to see progress in relations between the two South Asian neighbours to continue.
Indian Army chopper incursion like a CBM: Pakistani daily
ISLAMABAD: The lesson to be learnt from the Indian helicopter that entered Pakistani airspace is that "a drama need not be turned into a crisis", said a Pakistani daily on Tuesday.
Pakistan Sunday forced the Indian Army helicopter to land for violating its airspace.
China seeks military bases in Pak's restive tribal region
Quote:
China seeks military bases in Pak's restive tribal region
ISLAMABAD: China has expressed an interest in setting up military bases in Pakistan's volatile tribal area or the Northern Areas, close to the restive Chinese province of Xinjiang, to counter the activities of extremists, according to a media report today.
The Chinese desire is aimed at containing the growing terrorist activities of Chinese rebels of the al-Qaeda-linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement, The News daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
Pakistan announced a few hours ago that the Chinese had made no request to post their army on Pakistani soil.
This was published in the Urdu paper Daily Jung. I do not know how to post a link.
This changes the situation..
China is US wanna be, once China strong enough that will takes US place. China is a trouble maker in the future. I rather choose US more than China at this point.
India to base anti-piracy patrol plane in Maldives
India will base a Dornier maritime patrol aircraft in the Maldives from Wednesday to carry out surveillance of the Indian Ocean island nation's exclusive economic zone and also maintain an anti-piracy vigil in its waters. The Indian Navy plane will operate from Male and will stay there for three weeks.
India has been sending a warship or a naval plane to perform security roles for Maldives in the last two years, with Somali pirates becoming active close to island nation. It has also gifted a fast attack craft to the Maldivian maritime forces. India serviced the craft and returned it to the Maldives.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has also set up a chain of coastal radars for the island nation, apart from training its personnel in operating the equipment.
Quote:
Similar assistance is provided by India to Mauritius too, with a speedboat being gifted to the Mauritian maritime force by the Indian Navy. A coastal radar chain and automated identification system too have been set up by India in Mauritius for maritime surveillance of the island nation
Quote:
India has also gifted a fast attack craft to the Seychelles. It was involved in anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean a few months ago.
Maruitius , Seychelles, Maldives are being provided support for their Naval infrastructure and coastal defence, this could easily be a counter effort to the String-of-Pearls Strategy of the PRC. Apart from the fact that these countries do need to protect themselves form the risk of prevalent piracy, some infrastructure provided have been used in such ops. The activities along with the rumoured Listening post in Madagascar outlines the IN's IOR Actions which are strategic in nature
Perhaps India should increase efforts in terms of Maritime recce activities and help these small IOR nations being able to defend their littoral waters by training them and providing them infrastructure as detailed above. IN's recce activities provided real time intelligence to Sri Lankan Navy which helped break the LTTE's arms & ammo supply lines.
Added:
Apparently Mozambique is another country being engaged with by the IN apart from the ones mentioned above
Last edited by dragonfire; October 28th, 2011 at 06:29 AM.
Reason: Input Added
Granting India Most Favoured Nation status is a step forward for Pakistan
Islamabad announced on Wednesday that it has decided to grant India the status of a trading partner who cannot be discriminated against, called most favoured nation (MFN) status in the jargon, but finessed the announcement the next day.
This is symptomatic of relations between the countries and should not discourage Indian observers too much. India had granted Pakistan MFN status way back in 1996 but Islamabad had been unable to reciprocate the gesture till now. Thursday's official report of the previous day's cabinet deliberations talked of normalising trade relations with India, without explicit mention of MFN status.
Although there isnt too much to read into it; it is a positive step nevertheless and gives added impetus to the Bilateral trade between the two countries. The interesting thing about the Trade in the sub-continent is that now Both India and Pakistan are granted each other the MFN status and China is India's largest trading partner. China has over 13000 workers in Pakistan and Tens of Billions of $ in trade and investments with Pakistan.
With increasing trade, commerce and investment in each others economy India,Pakistan and China are working towards a more peaceful situation.
Pakistan announced a few hours ago that the Chinese had made no request to post their army on Pakistani soil.
This was published in the Urdu paper Daily Jung. I do not know how to post a link.
This changes the situation..
While the rebuttal is clear from Pakistan - in that the Official departments have stated that there has been no official requests from China for bases. The response from China to the story was that 'China does not have military bases abroad'. This is a bit interesting as there have too many reports on the matter and looks there could have been some fire which created so much smoke
To extend the list of countries - some news from Maldives of Strategic importance.
Quote:
Indian warships keep watch in Maldives for SAARC summit
New Delhi, Nov 10 (PTI) Acting on a request from Maldives, the Indian Navy has put in place a security ring deploying warships around the tiny Island nation, which is taking no chances with the security of assembled SAARC leaders. India in the past deployed a similar security ring with three warships and helicopters during the 2008 SAARC summit in Colombo.
The Importance of the Indian Navy in the IOR is being signified again especially with the smaller island nations. For India the IN also has something of a diplomatic role, what with good will visits, aid and disaster relief and rescue ops etc help to increase the importance it plays for an increasing global audience. With increasing presence in IOR it is also attempting to perhaps counter-balance the US presence in Diego Garcia.
Quote:
China opens embassy in Maldives ahead of key summit
GAN, Maldives — China opened a full diplomatic mission in the Maldives Tuesday, two days ahead of a key South Asian summit in the Indian Ocean archipelago, an official said.
Beijing established the embassy in the capital Male as seven South Asian leaders were due in the Maldives for their 17th summit in the southern city of Addu, a former secret base of the British Royal Navy during World War II.
"They (the Chinese) wanted to open the embassy before the summit," Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ahmed Naseer told AFP.
The importance of Maldives and the Chinese engagement is visibly increasing what with an official embassy being opened significantly, just days ahead of the SAARC summit.
President Mohamed Nasheed on Tuesday resigned from his post following widespread protests in the country. He made the announcement after signing a letter of resignation addressed to the speaker of the people's majlis.
Responding to the turn of events in Maldives, India said it was closely monitoring the situation in that country, but termed it as "internal matter" which as of now needs no outside assistance and said its community there was safe.
Regime change seems to be only in terms of Presidency. It was in reaction to protests, a coup attempt by sections of the police forces etc. The president - Mohamed Nasheed resigned. The former Vice President Mohammad Waheed Hassan has taken oath as the President.
Pak's Gilgit lease to China catches Indian army unawares
The latest proposal of Pakistan to lease Gilgit-Baltistan to China for 50 years has caught the Indian army unawares. And the commanders have gone into a huddle to figure out what it means for India. The presence of People's Liberation Army personnel in Gilgit-Baltistan, earlier part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, had been exposed by the New York Times and later substantiated by army commanders here, but what was not known was that the area would be all but governed by China.
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