While the Andaman and Nicobar islands serve as a vital, stationary asset for projecting power in the Indian Ocean, referring to them as an unsinkable aircraft carrier ignores key military and geopolitical limitations, explains Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands in the past few years, which it says it has the right to defend.
The simmering row between China and Vietnam over the disputed South China Sea came to the fore on Tuesday with Hanoi protesting over a Chinese patrol vessel firing on its fishing boat and Beijing defending its action as "legitimate and necessary" to protect sovereignty.
In a major policy speech on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the world will not allow China to treat the strategically important South China Sea (SCS) as its 'maritime empire' and vowed to support worried Southeast Asian countries against Beijing's 'campaign of bullying' to control the resource-rich region.
The boats, two from China's southern Guangdong Province, were lost on Sunday as they attempted to navigate gales near the disputed islands called Xisha by China and Paracel by Vietnam Islands about 330 km from China's island province of Hainan, Chinese officials in Hainan said.
Since 55 per cent of Indian trade passes through the South China Sea, and with over $5 billion investments in the energy sector in Vietnam, it is imperative India actively pursues its national interests in the region, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
China has for the first time landed a military plane on one of its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
In anticipation of a verdict to be delivered by the International Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Tuesday, China has orchestrated a worldwide campaign to defuse its findings.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey conducted a patrol within 20 kilometres of Mischeef Reef, part of the Spratly Islands.
China will prioritise the development of a floating nuclear power platform in the coming five years.
The PLA Air Force has conducted a combat air patrol in the South China Sea recently, which will become "a regular practice" in the future
Giving a fresh impetus to its ties with ASEAN, India today said it would soon draft a five-year action plan starting 2016 for enhancing connectivity and cooperation in diverse areas and hoped the long-delayed free trade pact on services and investment will be signed later this month.
'Both nations have a common problem: A rampaging, jingoistic and hostile China which is making substantial territorial claims. In the long run, Japan and India are going to be the victims of Chinese aggression -- so they might as well hang together to contain China,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
