19-03-2024 CARE mains practice

Topic- International Relations:

Introduction:

India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in the Maldives, a chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands stretching around 800 km across the equator, as well as in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The strategic contestation between China and India is intensifying in Indian Ocean region. China’s intent to create an adverse environment for India’s security by turning the country’s neighbours against it.

Body :

• Significance of Indian Ocean
• Maldives
• Sri Lanka
• Mauritius
• West Asian crisis and attacks by Houthi rebels
• Expansion of the Chinese Navy’s footprint in the region
• Tackling China
• Way Ahead

Conclusion :                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Chinese activities and influence in India’s extended neighbourhood have grown increasingly with the sole purpose of keeping New Delhi constrained and occupied in facing the resultant challenges. It may be time for New Delhi to encourage the creation of a new mechanism with the objective of bolstering maritime security and optimising the potential for the Blue Economy.

UPSC Syllabus International Relations:

 

Why was this question asked?

Q. China is using its economic relations and positive trade surplus as tools to develop potential military power status in Asia’, In the light of this statement, discuss its impact on India as her neighbour. [150 Words] [10 Marks] [UPSC Main 2017]

Introduction

India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in the Maldives, a chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands stretching around 800 km across the equator, as well as in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The strategic contestation between China and India is intensifying in Indian Ocean region. China’s intent to create an adverse environment for India’s security by turning the country’s neighbours against it.

Body Status : 

Significance of Indian Ocean

• The Indian Ocean basin is of particular importance for India as the region’s most populous country and geopolitical keystone. India’s 90% of trade by volume and almost all oil imports come via sea route which underscores the significance the region.
• Economic: The Ocean is a valuable source of mineral and oil resources. Forty per cent of the world’s offshore oil production takes place in the Indian Ocean basin.
• India is also the fourth-largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with about 45 per cent coming by sea.
• Deep Sea Exploration: In 2002, International Seabed Authority under UNCLOS granted permission to India to explore ocean regions and prospect for precious metals.
• Strategic and Security: India has a coastline of about 7500 km, and a large population is dependent on the fishing sector. Therefore, the security in the region is vital for coastal security as well as economic development.

Maldives

• The Maldives, with Mohamed Muizzu as President, seems to be heading on a collision course with India. Despite New Delhi’s patience and diplomatic tact, Male continues to deepen its embrace of China.
• India’s relation with Maldives has been going steadily downhill since the coming of the new government which is known to be pro-China.
• The Chinese President with his Maldivian counterpart signed 20 “key” agreements, including on tourism cooperation, disaster risk reduction and the blue economy.
• Maldives has also decided not to renew the agreement with India on a hydrographic survey of its waters.
• The agreement, signed in 2019, allowed India to conduct a hydrographic survey of the Maldivian territorial waters, study and chart reefs, lagoons, coastlines, ocean currents and tide levels.

Sri Lanka

• Recently, Sri Lanka showed greater sensitivity to India’s security concerns by imposing a year-long moratorium on foreign research ships, including Chinese ones, to its ports.
• Though the moratorium comes ostensibly for capacity building it is seen as a reaction to growing concerns in India.
• Chinese ships have docked in Colombo in recent years for research based on agreements between agencies in China and Sri Lanka.
• There were fears in India that these vessels could be used to monitor the region.
• China has been trying to expand its influence in Sri Lanka, which is located on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes in what India considers part of its strategic backyard.

Mauritius

• Last month, India’s SAGAR policy produced a valuable dividend as the Prime Ministers of India and Mauritius inaugurated a new airstrip and a jetty in the Agaléga Islands, boosting Mauritius’s capability to curb illegal activities in its vast Extended Economic Zone.
• This infrastructure development project, along with six more India-assisted development projects in Mauritius, is part of the Modi administration’s Security and Growth for All (Sagar) policy.
• The policy aims to deepen India’s economic and security cooperation with maritime partners, further helping them in improving their maritime security capabilities.
• The new infrastructure will also bolster India’s image as a maritime power and enhance its presence in the Indian Ocean Region.

West Asian crisis and attacks by Houthi rebels

• Both the Western Indian Ocean littered with island nations and the Northern Indian Ocean stretching from the Arabian Sea to the Suez have become active geographies again.
• The gradual regionalisation of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as reflected in the attacks by Houthi rebels on international shipping, has now led to a massive drop in transits through the Suez Canal.
• The diversion of ships to the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope adversely affects all nations in the region, big or small.

Expansion of the Chinese Navy’s footprint in the region

• The new chain of developments is set to expand the Chinese Navy’s footprint in the region. Its broad objective is to assert dominance.
• With the Maldives as a willing partner, Beijing lost little time in announcing a new agreement under which unspecified military assistance would be extended gratis to Maldives.
• This comes when 88 Indian military personnel, deployed with the host nation’s consent to operate humanitarian flights of three aviation platforms, has been replaced.
• The strategic contestation between China and India is intensifying.
• Much of China’s trade and energy supplies pass through the region, so its case for security for its supply routes cannot be dismissed.
• But what is worrisome is its strategic intent to create an adverse environment for India’s security by turning the country’s neighbours against it.
• A clear pattern is emerging behind Beijing’s quest for naval bases in Djibouti, Kyaukphyu, Gwadar, and Hambantota.
• This, combined with the nearly four-year-old border standoff, which has defied a diplomatic resolution, has meant the two nations continue to confront each other as adversaries.

Tackling China

• India needs to prepare for the possibility of conflict with China which involves bolstering India’s military capabilities.
• The Indian Ocean is vital to India’s economy, with 80% of its external trade and 90% of its energy trade occurring through these ocean lines.
• India is striving to counter China by joining hands with the USA, Japan and others and expanding Indian Navy’s activity in the Indian Ocean by fulfilling the role of Security Provider.

Agreement with other nations:

• India signed a strategic pact with France to use each other’s warships across the Indian Ocean.
• India also signed an agreement for a new base in Seychelles. India negotiated military access to facilities at Oman’s port (Duqm) and airfields.
• India signed an agreement with Singapore and Indonesia for naval cooperation.
• India is creating a security grid with the littoral countries to prevent militarization of the Indian Ocean.
• Malacca Straits: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are strategically important. These islands are near the Malacca Straits, providing an excellent location for tracking China’s submarine activities. India needs to modernise the infrastructure to deploy more and larger warships and planes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Way Ahead

• U.K., European Union, France, and Germany should be persuaded to take a clear line on China’s activities.
• While they are concerned about Beijing’s illegal claims in the South China Sea, they must see that a similar kind of assertiveness and hostile intent is building up in the Indian Ocean too.
• First, India needs to convey a clear message to its strategic partners that while it is conscious of its Indo-Pacific responsibilities, it prioritises the Indian Ocean region.
• Second, a critical audit of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) is needed.
• While IORA is underperforming and has become too amorphous to be effective, the CSC faces the danger of losing a key member, the Maldives, if the island nation’s partnership with China deepens.
• Third, Foreign Affairs Insights & Review ranked the Indian Navy the seventh most powerful in the world. As India aims to become the third largest economy, it should find new budgetary resources for its Navy to make it the third or fourth strongest.

Conclusion

Chinese activities and influence in India’s extended neighbourhood have grown increasingly with the sole purpose of keeping New Delhi constrained and occupied in facing the resultant challenges. It may be time for New Delhi to encourage the creation of a new mechanism with the objective of bolstering maritime security and optimising the potential for the Blue Economy.

Topic- Defence Technology :

Introduction

The Agni-5 ballistic missile test dubbed the “Divyastra”, that was conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is strategically consequential. With a range of over 5,000 kilometres, the Agni-5 is the longest-range missile India has tested so far. The potency of India’s nuclear deterrent is enhanced because this variant is integrated with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs).

Body

• • • Background
    • Significance of MIRVs
    • About Mission Divyastra test
    • Countering China
    • China factor
    • Requirements of MIRV-capable ballistic missiles
    • Issues in developing MIRV

Conclusion

Now that India has integrated the Agni-5 with multiple warheads, greater balance has been restored in the Sino-Indian nuclear deterrent relationship. The Agni-5 with MIRV capability bolsters India’s nuclear capabilities vis-à-vis China. It puts China on notice — that India is preparing itself to counter the advances Beijing has made with its missile and missile defence programmes.  With the successful test of the Agni-5 MIRV missile, India has crossed a key benchmark in its march to become a highly credible nuclear and missile power.

 

UPSC Syllabus Defence Technology:

 

Why was this question asked?

Q. How is S-400 air defence system technically superior to any other system presently available in the world? (2021 10 Marks)

Introduction:

The Agni-5 ballistic missile test dubbed the “Divyastra”, that was conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is strategically consequential. With a range of over 5,000 kilometres, the Agni-5 is the longest-range missile India has tested so far. The potency of India’s nuclear deterrent is enhanced because this variant is integrated with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs).

Body Status

Background

• The five designated nuclear weapons states — the United States, Russia, the People’s Republic of China, France and the United Kingdom — already possess MIRV capable projectiles which are integrated into their respective nuclear arsenals.
• The ‘Agni’ series of missiles constitute the backbone of India’s nuclear weapons delivery, and Agni V is the longest-range missile in the arsenal, with a reach of over 5,000 km.
• Agni V can reach most of China, especially with a smaller warhead, which would increase the range further.
• Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) technology gives better leverage in this regard.

Significance of MIRVs

• MIRV system is equipped with indigenous avionics systems and high accuracy sensor packages that ensure the re-entry vehicles reach the target points with the desired accuracy.
• A MIRV is a ‘missile bus’ whose passengers are nuclear bombs and which facilitates a single booster to deliver them to different targets.
• MIRVs are a “force multiplier” because one MIRV-ed missile can strike several targets.
• A MIRV-ed missile enhances the redundancy as a single missile can perform the role of several.
• MIRVs are also useful for saturating and penetrating ballistic missile defences.
• It can help defeat ballistic missile defences, which is important since India’s adversaries are deploying sophisticated air defences.

 

About Mission Divyastra test

• The DRDO conducted the test from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha, with various telemetry and radar stations monitoring multiple re-entry vehicles.
• In 2003, India declared its nuclear doctrine based on a ‘no first use’ (NFU) policy and reserved the right to massive retaliation in case it was attacked first.
• India announced its decision to maintain a minimum credible deterrence and a nuclear triad – comprising aircraft, missiles, and submarines – to deliver these nuclear weapons which has since been completed with ballistic missile submarines of the Arihant class conducting deterrence patrols.

Countering China

• India has joined a very select group of countries to develop an MIRV ballistic missile.
• China is building ballistic missile defences such as the Hongqi (HQ-19) ground-based ballistic missile interceptors, which have been tested, but their capacity to intercept Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMS) such as the Agni-5 is still suspect.
• The HQ-19s would eventually have the range to intercept the earlier variants of the Agni IRBM, especially when configured to carry only a single warhead.
• Ballistic missile defences paired to a growing Chinese nuclear arsenal would have significantly eroded India’s nuclear striking power as it would bequeath to China a strong damage limitation capability, especially if the Chinese were to carry out a nuclear first strike against India.
• To be sure, more testing of the MIRV-capable Agni-5 will be required to render the Indian nuclear ballistic missile arsenal more credible as the end-user – the Indian armed services are unlikely to be satisfied with a single test.

Requirements of MIRV-capable ballistic missiles

• Building MIRV-capable ballistic missiles requires meeting technical criteria, such as
• nuclear warhead miniaturisation
• ensuring that the receptacle that carries the warhead or re-entry vehicle is of low weight or mass before its release from the Post Boost Vehicle (PBV)
• having the re-entry vehicles configured precisely to fit into the missile as well their separation from the PBV, which has to be manoeuvrable.
• Guidance and accuracy are a necessity as re-entry vehicles have to be spin stabilised during atmospheric re-entry.
• A MIRV-based missile can only strike multiple targets that are within its ambit or geographic footprint.
• With the recent Agni-5 test, India has met these demanding technical requirements.

Issues in developing MIRV

• First, inadequate nuclear testing by New Delhi compromised the extent to which it could miniaturise warheads and MIRV them to strike multiple targets.
• Second, the lack of sufficient testing also undermined the extent to which the re-entry vehicles could be designed to carry the warheads.
• Further, the yield of the nuclear warheads is likely to be limited due to the small number of atomic tests India has conducted.

Conclusion

Now that India has integrated the Agni-5 with multiple warheads, greater balance has been restored in the Sino-Indian nuclear deterrent relationship. The Agni-5 with MIRV capability bolsters India’s nuclear capabilities vis-à-vis China. It puts China on notice — that India is preparing itself to counter the advances Beijing has made with its missile and missile defence programmes.  With the successful test of the Agni-5 MIRV missile, India has crossed a key benchmark in its march to become a highly credible nuclear and missile power.