A Freedom of Navigation patrol by the USS John Paul Jones through India’s Exclusive Economic Zone, without the prior consent of the Indian government shows that the two QUAD partners still have to iron-out fundamental issues vital to their strategic relationship. In Japan, the deployment of the PLA Navy’s sole carrier task force in the Miyako Strait […]
A Hindi translation of this article has been published in the April-May 2021 issue of “Defence Monitor” (Vol 9, Issue-4), a leading Hindi language defence magazine published in India. This English version is published with permission of the Editor, Defence Monitor. In July of 2020, Indian troops forcefully reminded their Chinese counterparts in eastern […]
This article launches the NMF’s advocacy for closer India-Australia economic and strategic ties and argues that the synchronisation of bilateral maritime trade may hold the key to future growth in the relationship between these two critical Indo-Pacific powers and members of the QUAD. With the India-Australia bilateral Strategic Partnership (concluded in 2009) having been elevated […]
This is the second and concluding part of an article on submarine communications cable systems relevant to India. Part-1 focussed upon providing an overview of these systems and the vulnerabilities to which they are subject. This concluding segment not only highlights the inadequate protection that these systems receive under international law but also under India’s […]
China’s 25-year economic cooperation agreement, worth $400 billion, with Iran, could subvert India’s attempts to establish itself as a reliable partner through modest investments in Iran’s port infrastructure. Elsewhere, India’s Adani Group’s alleged links with Myanmar’s military leadership could attract US-led sanctions, which could affect its port development projects in Myanmar and Australia.
This two-part article aims to provide Indian policy-makers and lay readers alike with an overview of submarine communications cable systems in India, highlighting their criticality, their vulnerabilities, and the inadequate protection they receive under national and international law. This piece also speaks directly to authorities within the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard, as […]
Given the temptation of South Asian governmental bureaucracies to view the shipbuilding industry solely in economic terms and as a generator of employment, this article seeks to draw the attention of lay readers and government officials alike to the strengths and infirmities of the legal framework that regulates (or should regulate) the shipbreaking industry, with […]
The history of human civilisation is a complex tapestry of individual and collective human development in the humanities and sciences interwoven with an apparently insatiable quest for power. This article concerns itself with some contemporary facets of the latter. Violence — and the ability to exert it more efficiently, more effectively, and, to a greater […]
The dislodging of the stranded MV Ever Given from the banks of the Suez Canal did not end the legal troubles of the Japanese owners of the ill-fated ship. Facing insurance claims by the cargo owners of ships stuck in the logjam and damage claims from the Suez Canal Authority, the detained ship and its crew of […]
The emergence of the instability in Mozambique as a new security threat on Africa’s east coast has attracted military assistance from Russia, the US, Portugal, France, Australia and South Africa. An expansion of an Islamist insurgency to the country’s onshore and offshore gas assets – including Indian investments – could lead to militarisation of the […]
Introduction The second edition of Exercise SEA VIGIL, a two day pan-India biennial coastal defence exercise, was conducted on 12 and 13 January 2021.[1] The exercise, which is India’s largest such exercise, was facilitated by central ministries and state governments, and is conducted in the build-up to the Indian Navy’s theatre-level war-fighting exercise TROPEX [Theatre-level […]
A suspected Israeli angle to an explosion on board an Iranian container ship off Syria’s coast threatens to flare into another round of sea-based tit-for-tat strikes by these adversaries. An outbreak of hostilities, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, could derail efforts to forge peace among the nations of West Asia.