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Journalism of Courage
This week India hosts naval chiefs from around the Indian Ocean. The first meeting of what is being called the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium marks the maturation of the navy as an important tool of this country8217;s regional security strategy. It also underlines India8217;s belated recognition of its enlightened self-interest in promoting multilateral approaches to Indian Ocean security. After decades of being a 8220;lone ranger8221;, it is now ready to build a cooperative security framework in the region.
New Delhi8217;s earlier efforts, in the 1970s and 1980s, to promote a regional approach to littoral security were defined by an unrealistic slogan 8212; the 8220;Indian Ocean as a zone of peace8221;. India8217;s demand that 8220;extra-regional8221; navies should withdraw from the Indian Ocean was met with hostility from the great powers and cynicism from our neighbours. Both believed the slogan was too thin a veil over New Delhi8217;s perceived ambition to convert the Indian Ocean into 8220;India8217;s Ocean8221;. India8217;s military isolation in the name of non-alignment reinforced the opaqueness of its maritime intentions. India8217;s argument that throwing out extra-regional powers would lead to peace and stability was fundamentally flawed. Great powers have stakes in far corners of the world, as a rising China and India are beginning to discover now, and there were no dearth of regional rivalries in the Indian Ocean. Since the end of the Cold War, India8217;s bilateral and multilateral naval exercises with a large number of neighbours and great powers have helped reduce the misperceptions about India8217;s maritime intentions and raise the regional awareness of the navy8217;s capacity to contribute to peace and security in the Indian Ocean littoral. The IONS marks the next step, in which India has taken the leadership to promote a genuine maritime multilateralism in the region.
