Tsunami diplomacy: Indo-US engagement creates new waves in the Indian Ocean

Although there has been much rhetoric in the last few years about the potential for political partnership between India and the US, this is the first time that the naval forces of the two counties will be working together in the Indian Ocean.

During Operation Enduring Freedom to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan, which followed the 9/11 attacks, Indian ships had assisted the US in providing security in the Malacca straits. But that operation, a picnic in comparison to the proposed tsunami relief effort, took months to negotiate. This time, diplomatic action has been fast and furious.

A series of telephonic conversations on Wednesday between External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, and between the National Security Adviser J N Dixit and his American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, prepared the ground for the swift decisions that followed.

Hours later, US President George W Bush was on the line to PM Manmohan Singh, and it was agreed that the two armed forces would work together along with other major military establishments in the region to provide relief and assist in the rehabilitation of people devastated by the tsunami.

Soon after, President Bush announced the formation of a core group comprising the US, India, Japan and Australia to deal with the tragedy.

This is not being seen as an exclusive club, but as the nucleus of a major multilateral initiative that will work in tandem with the United Nations.

This morning, a teleconference of senior officials from the four governments, including Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and US Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman, kicked off the consultations on the relief effort.

Tomorrow, the Indian ambassador in Washington Ronen Sen along with envoys from Japan and Australia and Grossman will consult UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on roping in the world body and its resources.

Even as these talks proceed, a large contingent of the US navy, including ships that convert seawater into potable water, floating hospitals, surveillance planes, and aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln carrying helicopters, is steaming towards the affected areas.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy is actively providing relief in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Having already established its presence in the disaster zone, India is in the lead providing the first assessments on the damage and the kind of assistance needed.

Besides expanding its presence beyond Sri Lanka (Operation Rainbow) and Maldives (Operation Castor), the Indian Navy is looking beyond to Indonesia. It is dispatching the hospital ship, INS Nirupak, to Aceh in Sumatra, one of the worst-affected areas in Indonesia.

During the Cold War, the Indian Navy, for all practical purposes, was ranged against the armadas of the US, Japan and Australia. Much of South East Asia too, viewed Indian naval power with suspicion. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, India has engaged the American and allied navies as well as those of South East Asia in bilateral exercises.

For the first time now, the Indian Navy, one of the strongest in the region, will be working with the US Navy, the world’s most powerful, in providing humanitarian security in South and South East Asia.

India is determined to make the joint relief mission with the US, Japan and Australia a big success.

If it does turn out to be effective, observers here say, the quadrangular cooperation could become a model for a broad-based cooperative security management in the Indian Ocean.