The basic advantage is our geography in the Indian Ocean and “we are utilising that”, a Navy representative told the parliamentary standing committee on defence. The Navy said it is building capacity to ensure that whatever capacity China can bring into the region, it has all those capabilities to counter that.
On the future roadmap to defend the Indian Ocean, the Navy representative said China’s coastline is 18,000 km and has other adversaries also. “So, the number of assets that she can bring into the Indian Ocean is much lesser,” the representative said also noting that the maritime domain is global common and so “we cannot really stop her [China] from coming into our region.”
“But what we are doing is that we are building a capacity to match the assets that she can bring into our waters,” the Navy said according to a report tabled in Parliament last week.
