Kalam endorses Navy's new Eastward incline
Indian Express
SHIV AROOR
VISAKHAPATNAM, FEBRUARY 12: Endorsement for the Navy's new and
multifaceted code to look to the East, and not obsess about the Arabian
Sea, came in today from the highest office in the country. President A
P J Abdul Kalam, who observed the first-ever fleet review on the Eastern
seaboard here, passionately commended the Navy's affirmation that the
road to becoming a regional power would have to begin with engaging East
and South East Asia. ''Nearly 40 per cent of the world's population
lives in our region. The economic growth of the region depends on the
heavy transportation in the Indian Ocean, particularly the Malacca
Strait. The Navy has an increasing role to provide the support
necessary for carrying out these operations,'' Kalam said in his address
to the Navy today, after he inspected a fleet review that included over
40 ships and 20 Naval aircraft.
Widely held to be the principal ideologue of the Navy's decision to
engage with countries in the Indian Ocean Region Navy chief Admiral Arun
Prakash said, ''The economic resurgence of our country depends on
maritime peace. We are now poised to take our place as a regional
power.'' The Navy recently re-stated its interest a larger role in the
security of the Malacca Strait, which, in itself, will be only the
beginning of larger security responsibilities in the region.
The new strategic perspective is not merely doctrinal. The numbers
already speak volumes for how the Navy is reinforcing its position in
the Bay of Bengal and southwards. Of the 21 warships currently being
built for the Navy, more than half are to be based out of Visakhapatnam.
While the six soon-to-be-readied Scorpene submarines will be based out
of Karwar near Goa, they will find docking and maintenance facilities at
Vishakhapatnam where they will spend much of their time deployed.
And while the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier is to be based on the
Western seaboard, the prestigious home-built Air Defence Ship will
almost certainly find a home here when it is commissioned in 2013. Also,
on the cards are plans to make Visakhapatnam a flagship exercising
ground for visiting foreign warships. Apart from the country's Advanced
Technology Vessel (ATV) project which will endow this primary submarine
base with a small fleet of nuclear submarines, President Kalam also
called for the next class of submarines (the Scorpenes) to be capable of
deploying BrahMos and other longer-range missiles.
