Leveraging the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Strengthening Strategic Cooperation

 Keywords: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Non-Traditional Security Challenges, Cooperation

Date: 22, June 2023

As the old order is now in shambles and the new one is under construction, the Indo-Pacific region has become a quintessential theatre that is shaping the contours of the emerging world order. The Bay of Bengal, in the Eastern Indian Ocean, forms the heart that connects the Indian Ocean on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east. What further enhances the significance of this region is the location of India’s extended area of territorial jurisdiction, the archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The growing significance of the islands in India’s policy initiatives and strategic objectives is reflected in the flurry of high-level visits with PM Modi making a visit in 2018 to the most recent one of the Indian Chief of Defence Staff. Leveraging the geostrategic advantages of the islands will greatly define India’s role in the larger Indo-Pacific region.

The island chain of Andaman and Nicobar comprises a total of 836 islands/islets/rocky outcrops stretching like an arc between the Bay of Bengal in the west and the Andaman Sea in the East. The archipelago overlooks the six-degree channel through which passes trillions of dollars of trade to Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Their significance is further enhanced by their vicinity to other islands in the Bay of Bengal. To its North lies the Coco island of Myanmar which is just 22 nautical miles away and to the South lies the Cocos Keeling islands of Australia.

Further, the southern tip of the island is only 90 nautical miles away from Indonesia. The Indonesian archipelago also houses two important ingresses Lombok and Sunda Straits which form an alternative route to the Indian Ocean, apart from the traditional Malacca Strait.

One of the most potent challenges for India in the Bay of Bengal is the increasing forays of China through ‘grey zone’ activities. Lately, the Indian government has raised concerns with Myanmar about the development of a listening post on Coco island in the Bay of Bengal. According to a media report citing intelligence, the strip of the runway at Coco island has been expanded from 1300 to 2300 m, in addition to the construction of sheds for the operation of the transport aircraft from these islands which are just at a distance of 55 km from the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

In 2022, an unidentified balloon was sighted over the islands, immediately after the completion of the multi-domain triservice exercise in a network-centric environment. Somewhat similar to the incident of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., where it was shot down by an F-22 raptor. These activities are in addition to a large number of regular so-called research vessels of China that are taking to the Indian Ocean waters. Some of these have also been suspected of tracking Indian satellite and rocket launches from its east coast which houses other critical infrastructure of the country.

The Bay of Bengal is also emerging as a hotspot for non-traditional security challenges. The close vicinity of the area to the Golden Triangle makes it vulnerable to drug smuggling. Drug seizures near Andaman and Nicobar islands have become a common phenomenon. Instead of using the traditional land route between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, sea routes are being exploited to carry out the notorious drug trade.

The Malacca Strait is now considered one of the three main areas of concern for piracy-related activities, according to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). This reflects a shift in the nefarious activities toward the East from the traditional region around the Horn of Africa.  

Climate-related disasters have the ability to bring the development and progress of the entire region at risk. The Bay of Bengal and the surrounding region face one of the deadliest cyclones in the world and this is likely to increase due to warming of the seas. As the region is too large to be secured by any one country, addressing these challenges requires collaboration.

As India holds the G20 presidency this year, it put a spotlight on the region by organizing the first briefing of the G20 envoys in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This has served to underscore the importance of the location and the need for cooperation. A burden-sharing model over the islands will allow India to leverage the strategic location of the islands.

In this context, two important considerations can be made. First, building up on the convergences with like-minded countries such as India and Australia that have common interests in the IOR as reflected in the recent Australia’s Defence Strategic Review 2023 and Indian Maritime Doctrine. Currently, both are using their respective island territories independently to carry out surveillance and maritime domain awareness. This can be taken up by jointly using the islands of Andaman and Nicobar and Cocos Keeling for interoperability and learning from the best practices of the other.

To this end, the combined maritime domain awareness should cover both above-the-water and below-the-surface surveillance to keep a watch on the submarine activities of China traversing through the alternative routes of Lombok, Wetar, and Ombai Straits. It will also allow for combined and coordinated humanitarian and disaster relief measures in the region.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been considered the ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ of India. The location can be used to fulfill India’s interest in maintaining the free and open Indo-Pacific. New Delhi has already signed logistics agreements with the U.S., France, and Japan in the region. It can allow these nations to access the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for port visits which will enhance India’s capacity and capability to deter aggression, in addition to the response to emerging non-traditional security challenges.

The policy of non-intervention in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been transformed under the present dispensation which now looks at the island from a development eye to leverage its locational considerations. In this context, island territories offer a chance to collaborate with like-minded partners to ensure the maritime neighborhood of India remains within its primacy.

Radhey Tambi is a research associate at the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), New Delhi. Currently, she is undertaking a study on “Leveraging India’s interest through island nations in the Indian Ocean Region.”

Disclaimer: The views expressed above and the information available are those of the author/s and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the position of Asian Confluence