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Indian President Emphasizes Need to Boost Maritime Security

Posted on: Sunday, 18 December 2005, 12:00 CST

Text of report by Indian news agency PTI

Kochi, 18 December: Stressing the need for increased maritime security, Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Sunday [18 December] said that control of India depended on control of the seas. The UN has declared a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and in a few years, 350 nautical mile legal continental shelf would be added to further raise the stake of the maritime territory of India.

Asking all maritime states to be aware of their crucial role in maritime security, the president said Kerala's (southern Indian state) contribution to maritime security has been significant. Kochi in the state had been made a major naval base and was being developed as the "cradle of learning" for naval and coast guard personnel, Kalam said in his inaugural address at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Kerala History Association (KHA).

The country was invaded in the past due to lack of awareness of its maritime vulnerabilities. Today the situation is not very different. The Indian Ocean is strategically important for sea- borne trade and access to West Asia's energy resources, he said. "New amorphous insecurities like 'global terrorism' have taken root and invited the permanent militarization of the Indian Ocean and its islands with the deployment of nuclear weapons and other advanced sea borne and space technologies by US, Europe, Australia and Russia," he said. Driven by the need to secure energy supplies from West Asia, China and Japan have extended their naval reach into the Indian Ocean, the president said.

Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru "To be secure on land, we must be supreme at sea", Kalam said in the 1971 war with Pakistan to liberate Bangladesh, India again witnessed gunboat diplomacy with the US sending its aircraft carrier USS Enterprise deploying nuclear weapons. This once again emphasized the need to ensure the growth of maritime security, he said. There are other economic stakes also for the nation in maritime security. "Our trading with other nations has intensified. Nearly 70 per cent of the oil vitally needed for the transportation sector is imported and delivered by ships sailing across the ocean," Kalam, who is also the supreme head of the defence forces, said.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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