{"id":63927,"date":"2021-04-19T14:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T04:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=63927"},"modified":"2021-04-19T13:34:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T03:34:30","slug":"us-naval-intrusion-exposes-indias-political-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/us-naval-intrusion-exposes-indias-political-weakness\/","title":{"rendered":"US naval intrusion exposes India\u2019s political weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In a move that has deeply embarrassed the Indian government, a guided missile destroyer from the US 7th\u00a0Fleet transgressed into India\u2019s exclusive economic zone<\/a> on 7 April. Later that day, the fleet commander issued a statement saying, \u2018This freedom of navigation operation (\u201cFONOP\u201d) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging India\u2019s excessive maritime claims.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long hailed the special relationship between the two countries, highlighting his efforts to elevate India\u2013US engagement to new levels. The US\u2019s unannounced naval incursion has raised questions about whether the bonhomie that characterised bilateral ties under former US president Donald Trump will be reset by President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The Japan-headquartered 7th\u00a0Fleet is the largest of the US Navy\u2019s forward-deployed fleets, and its statement was widely perceived as unusual, even combative. The\u00a0USS John Paul Jones<\/em> \u2018asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India\u2019s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India\u2019s prior consent, consistent with international law,\u2019 it said, adding: \u2018India requires prior consent for military exercises or maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law.\u2019<\/p>\n

Curiously, the \u2018international law\u2019 the statement refers to is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea<\/a>, which the US hasn\u2019t signed up to because it disagrees with certain provisions. UNCLOS has been ratified by 167 countries, including India, plus the European Union, but not by the US.<\/p>\n

While a country may not be legally obliged to inform another before it enters that country\u2019s EEZ, it has a diplomatic and political responsibility to do so, especially when the two countries are\u00a0\u2018strategic partners\u2019, as India and the US are. Both are also committed<\/a>, together with their\u00a0Quadrilateral Security Dialogue\u00a0partners Japan and Australia,\u00a0to check just such unprovoked forays by China into the South China Sea and the wider Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Evidently, the 7th\u00a0Fleet\u2019s incursion into India\u2019s EEZ wasn\u2019t impulsive or accidental and very likely had clearance from higher US authorities, naval or political. The fleet\u2019s statement that it was \u2018challenging\u2019 India seems a provocation, suggesting that Washington disregarded the enduring strategic partnership it enjoys with New Delhi.<\/p>\n

These aspects were borne out when a US Department of Defense spokesperson, addressing journalists<\/a> in Washington on 10 April, reiterated what was said in the official 7th\u00a0Fleet statement, but made no mention of the violation of India\u2019s EEZ, maintaining instead that the Arleigh Burke\u2013class destroyer had conducted \u2018innocent passage\u2019 through the Maldives\u2019 \u2018territorial sea\u2019. This island state lies 335 nautical miles off southern India.<\/p>\n

UNCLOS\u00a0grants each coastal state exclusive sovereignty over its\u00a0EEZ, which extends 200\u00a0nautical miles from its coast. India\u2019s EEZ measures 2.2 million square kilometres. To safeguard this sovereignty, the convention allows the coastal state to take necessary measures, including boarding, inspection, arrest and legal action, to ensure compliance with international laws and regulations.<\/p>\n

UNCLOS grants\u00a0\u2018right of innocent passage\u2019 to foreign ships through a country\u2019s territorial sea, but that right is conditional. Such passage must be \u2018continuous and expeditious\u2019 and \u2018[i]f it involves stopping and anchoring, it should be only incidental to\u00a0force\u00a0majeure<\/em>\u00a0or distress or for the purpose of rendering assistance to persons, ships or aircraft in danger or distress\u2019.<\/p>\n

Under UNCLOS, the passage of a foreign ship is considered prejudicial to peace and security of the coastal state if the vessel engages in activities that include \u2018any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind\u2019, \u2018the carrying out of research or survey activities\u2019 or \u2018any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage\u2019.\u00a0However, UNCLOS has no agency for\u00a0suo moto<\/em>\u00a0action against the offender, but leaves it to the aggrieved state to take matters up for arbitration.<\/p>\n

The Indian government may well have downplayed the intrusion, as it has done in the case of China\u2019s border violations<\/a> since last May. But the 7th\u00a0Fleet\u2019s defiant declaration precluded any such possibility.<\/p>\n

In a rejoinder issued on 9 April<\/a>, two days after the 7th\u00a0Fleet\u2019s statement, India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs emphasised the government\u2019s stated position that UNCLOS doesn\u2019t authorise other states to carry out any military exercises or manoeuvres in another\u2019s EEZ, \u2018in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state\u2019. It added that the US destroyer \u2018was continuously monitored transiting from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits\u2019 and that the government had conveyed its concerns about this passage to the US government through diplomatic channels.<\/p>\n

Both the 7th\u00a0Fleet\u2019s mention of \u2018military exercises or maneuvers\u2019 in its statement and the foreign ministry\u2019s reference to \u2018the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state\u2019, imply that this was no \u2018innocent passage\u2019. Neither party has said what transpired during\u00a0the John Paul Jones\u2019<\/em> transit or what the Indian authorities did to identify and\/or prevent it. If it indeed undertook a military manoeuvre, the John Paul Jones<\/em> unmistakeably violated international law.<\/p>\n

But the incident raises a niggling question for India: is its government being viewed as weak and incapable of defending its sovereignty?<\/p>\n

The American naval intrusion took place when the US\u2019s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate\u00a0John Kerry was in India to hold \u2018consultations on increasing climate ambition\u2019 with Indian leaders, including Modi.<\/p>\n

Only last November, units from the 7th Fleet participated in Exercise Malabar 2020 carried out by the Quad in the Bay of Bengal. Captain Steven DeMoss, commodore of the Fleet\u2019s Destroyer Squadron 15, had then pronounced<\/a>, \u2018India, Japan and Australia form the core of our strategic partners across the Indo-Pacific.\u2019<\/p>\n

There has also been a flurry of activity involving India and the US in recent weeks on several fronts. On 12 March, Biden hosted an online Quad leaders\u2019 summit. A week later, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited India on his first overseas tour to signal the Biden administration\u2019s strong commitment to the bilateral partnership. This was followed by a two-day bilateral naval exercise in the eastern Indian Ocean region. And, at the end of March, the four Quad partners were joined by France in a three-day naval wargame amid the growing efforts of China to expand its influence in the region.<\/p>\n

Thus, while it may appear intriguing, Washington\u2019s maritime violation represents its increasing inclination to take India and its allegiance for granted, and to underscore India\u2019s status as a very junior partner. India has little option but to remain on the back foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a move that has deeply embarrassed the Indian government, a guided missile destroyer from the US 7th\u00a0Fleet transgressed into India\u2019s exclusive economic zone on 7 April. Later that day, the fleet commander issued a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1336,"featured_media":63930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1053,69,31,2397],"class_list":["post-63927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-freedom-of-navigation","tag-india","tag-united-states","tag-us-alliances"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUS naval intrusion exposes India\u2019s political weakness | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/us-naval-intrusion-exposes-indias-political-weakness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US naval intrusion exposes India\u2019s political weakness | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a move that has deeply embarrassed the Indian government, a guided missile destroyer from the US 7th\u00a0Fleet transgressed into India\u2019s exclusive economic zone on 7 April. 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