The Indian Ocean, once a relatively quiet arena of global politics, is fast becoming the new chessboard of strategic influence.
In a major narcotics bust, an Indian Navy ship intercepted and seized over 2500 kg of narcotics in the western Indian ocean.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Mauritius was far more than a ceremonial gesture; it was a strategic reaffirmation of India’s enduring interests in the Western Indian Ocean.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that he is looking forward to engaging with the Mauritius leadership to elevate the partnership between the two countries in all its facets during his two-day State Visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago, beginning early Tuesday morning.
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar participated in the 8th Indian Ocean Conference held in Oman and delivered the keynote address at the inaugural session.
The Indian diplomat said the pandemic demonstrated like few other events could, the importance of India’s capacity to mount HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief)
But the fertile central plain is both China‘s strength as well as its weakness. China feeds 23 per cent of the world‘s population from 7 per cent of arable land, by crowding some 2,000 human beings onto each square mile of cultivated earth in the valleys and flood plains. But the narrow coastal zone of prosperity also creates a deep social chasm because it profits hugely from maritime trade which does not flow to the rest of China.
Soon after World War II, the tides of global politics turned. It became necessary for Australia to maintain close ties with both the UK and the US to resist communist advances in the southern Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
India‘s interest in the South China Sea is primarily due to the fact that the Sea and the Indian Ocean are strategically inter-related. India wants to have a maritime strategy along with the littoral countries of South East Asia that will deny Chinese dominance
Experiences of the disaster and its aftermath, and the meaning people take from them, have varied.
