Eyeing Southeast Asia, India builds port in Indonesia - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Eyeing Southeast Asia, India builds port in Indonesia.

India is developing its maiden deep-sea port in Indonesia's Sabang close to Andaman and Nicobar Islands making its maiden foray in the southeast Asian amid China’s slew of connectivity plans for ASEAN under BRI.
The Sabang port is being developed in partnership with neighbour and strategic partner Indonesia. An Indian Coast Guard Ship Vijit, is currently on a visit to Sabang, Indonesia, from March 17-20. The deep sea portwill give India wide access to Southeast Asia as a counter-balancing force. The port will be a key element in India's Indo-Pacific strategy, persons familiar with the project told ET.
A joint initiative to develop deep-sea port in Sabang in Indonesia’s Aceh province to enhance maritime connectivity as part of respective Indo-Pacific strategies was launched last year. India and Indonesia are trying to complement each other with proposed connectivity and infrastructure projects in the region.
During the visit of Prime Minister of India to Indonesia in May 2018, both sides had arrived at a “Shared Vision of Maritime Cooperation in the Indo Pacific” under which deepening economic and people-to-people exchanges, including connectivity with port of Sabang was identified as a key priority area. A series of steps have since been undertaken by both sides to implement the joint vision.
This visit of “VIJIT” follows from the first ever visit of Naval ship - INS Sumitra to Sabang in July 2018. The visit of the ship to Sabang highlights the close maritime proximity between India and Indonesia and the strengthening cooperation in the area of maritime security and safety, officials here told ET.
The VIJIT is commanded by Comdt T Ashish (0532-J), who is a long Navigation Direction officer. ICGS Vijit is the 2nd in the series of 90 meter Offshore Patrol Vessels, and was commissioned at Goa on 11 Dec 2010. 'Vijit' meaning "Winner or Victorious" is the testimony of India’s ship building capabilities and the resolve of Govt of India to safeguard country’s maritime interests. The ship’s complement includes a team of 15 Officers and 90 men who are highly motivated and fully trained to excel at all tasks with alacrity and élan in keeping with Coast Guard’s motto “Vayam Rakshamah”.
The ship is the fastest in its category with a designed speed of 26 knots at a displacement of 2393 tons. This new generation ship is equipped with the advanced Navigational and Communicational equipment, sensors and machinery including an Integrated Bridge System (IBS), Integrated Machinery Control System (IMCS), Power Management System (PMS), High Power External Fire Fighting System (ABS Fi-Fi Class-1) and one indigenous Close Range Naval (CRN) 91 Gun Mount along with an IR/ UV fire control system for day and night usage.
The ship is designed to carry one twin engine HAL built Advance Light Helicopter and five high speed boats for Search and Rescue, Maritime Law Enforcement and Marine Pollution Response. The ship is fitted with advanced Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) making it a very versatile platform to carryout Search and Rescue operations in Indian Search and Rescue Region (ISRR) besides carrying out other tasks as mandated in CG Charter. The sustenance and reach coupled with most modern weapons, sensors and communication systems, provides her the capabilities of performing the role of a command platform for the conduct of Coast Guard operations at high seas and near the coast.
Last November the first bilateral naval exercise named “Samudra Shakti” between the Indian and the Indonesian Navies was inaugurated on Tuesday in Surabaya were held in Java Sea.
The commencement of this bilateral naval exercise marked a significant forward step in the operational engagement between the two navies following the Ind-Indo Corpat which have been ongoing since 2002. INS Rana ( a destroyer class vessel) commanded participated from the Indian Navy and from the Indonesian Navy the units that participated included KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda and Maritime Patrol Aircrafts. The exercise was held in two phases: the harbour phase and followed by the sea phase. (Source:defencenews.in)


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Eyeing Southeast Asia, India builds port in Indonesia.

India asserts role in southeast Asia - Pragnya IAS Academy - News analysis

India asserts role in southeast Asia.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Modi took several concrete foreign policy and security steps in Southeast Asia in recent days
• It's not clear just how far India will take these relationships, given years of promise, and a general election next year
• If India is already rattling China, it won't want to spark open confrontation

Almost lost in the din of the upcoming US-North Korea summit and fresh tension between Washington and Beijing last week, India cemented its diplomatic and security ties across Southeast Asia in a clear challenge to China.
It's not clear just how far New Delhi will take these relationships, given years of promise, and a general election due in 11 months that could be a distraction for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And if India is already rattling China, it won't want to spark open confrontation.
But Modi took several concrete foreign policy and security steps in Southeast Asia in recent days.
He signed an agreement with Indonesia to develop a port in the city of Sabang that would overlook the western entrance to the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest waterways, and agreed a pact with Singapore on logistical support for naval ships, submarines and military aircraft during visits.
Modi also flew to Kuala Lumpur for a late-scheduled call on Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who won last month's general election, effectively cementing ties with three of the most influential Southeast Asian nations.
On Friday, Modi told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's premier defence forum, that India would work with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to promote a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.
"We will work with them, individually or in formats of three or more, for a stable and peaceful region," he said in the keynote speech at the forum
Several delegates, including US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, voiced support.
At the end of the forum on Sunday, Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen said: "I am sure many countries are delighted that India has indicated its firm commitment to the region."
China cool
The term "Indo-Pacific" has grown in usage across diplomatic and security circles in the United States, Australia, India and Japan in recent years, shorthand for a broader and democratic-led region in place of "Asia-Pacific", which some people have said places China too firmly at the centre.
In a nod to India's growing regional stature, the US military's Pacific Command in Hawaii formally changed its name to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in a ceremony on Wednesday.
Despite an outward show of friendship between China and India, and Modi's comments about the strong relations between them, Beijing gave a distinctly cool response to his strategy.
The state-owned Global Times warned in an editorial last week: "If India really seeks military access to the strategic island of Sabang, it might wrongfully entrap itself into a strategic competition with China and eventually burn its own fingers."
Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhou, research fellow at the Institute of War Studies Academy of Military Sciences of the People's Liberation Army, told reporters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue that Modi "made some dedicated comments on what he thought of the Indo-Pacific concept".
He did not elaborate but the Global Times quoted him as saying: "The Indo-Pacific strategy, and the quasi-alliance between the U.S., Japan, India and Australia will not last long."
Wider footprint
Indian foreign ministry officials said there was a strong element of self-interest in New Delhi's efforts to secure open access to the Malacca Strait, since it carries about 60 percent of its foreign trade.
But India's intended footprint looks to be wider. Late last month, three Indian warships staged exercises with the Vietnamese navy for the first time in the South China Sea, which is claimed almost wholly by China.
Vietnamese submariners are trained in India, while the two sides have significantly increased intelligence sharing and are exploring advanced weapons sales.
To the west, India signed an agreement for access to the port of Duqm on Oman's southern coast, during a visit by Modi earlier this year. Under the agreement, media reports said, the Indian navy will be able to use the port for logistics and support, allowing it to sustain long-term operations in the western Indian Ocean.
In January, India finalised a logistics exchange arrangement with France under which it can use French military facilities in the Indian Ocean.
Analysts said a more assertive India would answer concerns in Southeast Asia about expanding Chinese influence in the region and a fear that the United States was disengaging.
The United States' trade spat with China and a perceived U-turn in its foreign policy as it pursues peace with North Korea had shaken many assumptions in the region, they said. (Source: The Times of India)

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India asserts role in southeast Asia.

Nepal first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma: WHO - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

Nepal first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma: WHO.

Nepal has become the first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma, world's leading cause of preventable blindness of infectious origin, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement today.

Nepal's achievement is commendable and results from a strong political commitment, intense community engagement and impressive leadership demonstrated by civil society," said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region.
Trachoma was the second leading cause of preventable blindness in the Himalayan nation in the 1980s.
It is a big step towards the health of everyone and comes at a time when Nepal accelerates its fight against other neglected tropical diseases as well," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said.
A letter acknowledging the validation was presented to Nepal's Minister of State for Health and Population, Padma Kumari Aryal yesterday by Singh and Ghebreyesus at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, where the World Health Assembly is in session.
In 2002, the Government of Nepal had stepped up the efforts to eliminate trachoma with the establishment of a national trachoma programme. The prevalence of active (inflammatory) trachoma in the country fell by 40 per cent following the implementation of sustained control activities from 2002 to 2005, the WHO statement said.
The Nepal government, through the ministry of water supply and sanitation, provided incentives to local communities and districts to build and maintain latrines, measures that were crucial to improve sanitation and reduce the disease carrying flies.
The national trachoma programme in that country also collaborated with the ministry of education to include a module on trachoma in the school curriculum, the statement said.
In 1998, the World Health Assembly had resolved to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem.
Trachoma is a chlamydial infection which happens due to lack of hygiene, unclean water supply and can spread by contact with eye, nose, or throat secretions of a person suffering from the disease or indirectly via flies. The infection is particularly common among children.
The disease puts more than 190 million people in 41 countries at the risk of blindness. It is responsible for the blindness or visual impairment of around 1.9 million people worldwide. (Source: The Business Standard)

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Nepal first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma: WHO.