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US closes in on South Asia's 'strategic
jewel'
By Rahul Bedi
NEW DELHI -
The United States is looking to India, its
newfound strategic ally, to help it covertly expand its
vital naval influence in South Asia. And the US also
wants India's help in containing China's increasing sway
in the Indian Ocean.
To achieve these twin
aims, the US's covetous eyes are on the eastern Sri
Lankan port of Trincomalee as a staging point for its
naval assets stationed in and around its Diego Garcia
base in the Indian Ocean.
To gain access
to the "strategic jewel" that is Trincomalee, one
of the world's biggest natural deep harbors, Washington
has "persuaded" India to step in as its proxy to
extend its influence over the port without overtly
arousing suspicion of superpower hegemony.
To
make this move possible, the US, as part of establishing
its long-term presence in Asia, has successfully
pressured the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -
who have been fighting for nearly two decades for an
independent homeland - to persevere in their peace talks
with the Sri Lankan government.
Located on the
busy East-West shipping route stretching from the Suez
Canal to the Malacca Straits, Trincomalee "controls" the
Indian Ocean. Through a combination of diplomacy,
bullying and astute bargaining, a paranoid India had for
several decades managed to prevent outside powers -
especially the US - from having access to Trincomalee.
But "with the United States now India's most coveted
ally, Delhi is unlikely to object to Washington neatly
tying up various strategic bonds to fully dominate the
Asian region", a senior Indian security officer said.
Delhi is hoping to profit from its growing defense
relations with the United States, he added.
During the Cold War years, the United States
had wanted to station a Voice of America transmitter in
the area as a precursor to its warships using the
harbor, but India had steadfastly opposed any such move.
One of the key clauses of the 1987 accord that led to
the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri
Lanka to disarm the LTTE declared that Trincomalee -
particularly its oil tanks, located around 20 kilometers
from the Indian coast - would not be controlled by any
foreign power "inimical" to India.
But all that
has now changed. After September 11, India-US defense
relations are no longer confined to strategic cooperation
through dialogue, periodic policy reviews and reciprocal
visits by senior officials and service commanders, but
extend to joint military maneuvers and the inflow of US
military hardware.
Expanding bilateral strategic
cooperation led to the reactivation of the Indo-US
Defense Policy Group (DPG), the apex military
coordination body to further negotiations between the
Pentagon and India's ministry of defense that were
stalled after sanctions following New Delhi's 1998
nuclear tests.
In a quiet, 35-year deal recently
clinched with Sri Lanka - with US approval - the
state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has hammered out a 200
million rupee (US$4.16 million) agreement to refurbish
the voluminous oil tanks at Trincomalee. This
refurbishing is happening for the first time since World
War II, when British warships used them to refuel.
Currently, Ceylon Petroleum Corp operates only
15 of Trincomalee's 99 storage tanks, limiting sales to
25 tonnes per vessel and making the fuel expensive. But
once the IOC activates the tanks and brings in petroleum
products from its nearby Chennai refinery on the Indian
mainland, supplies will be augmented to 12,250
kiloliters, making fuel not only cheaper but increased
to 200 tonnes per ship.
To further cement its
presence across the island, the IOC is also planning on
taking over 100 retail petroleum outlets. The two sides
are also considering an offshoot off the proposed
pipeline between the southern Indian cities of Chennai
and Madurai to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
Providing the entire operation protection at
Trincomalee will be US-trained Sri Lankan soldiers.
Under Operation Balanced Style, US Sea Air Land Forces
(Seals) specialists have begun training Sri Lankan army
and navy personnel in security techniques to protect
Trincomalee.
Sri Lankan police teams are being
sent to the US for anti-terrorism courses with emphasis
on bomb disposal. US military cooperation has also been
extended to the island's air force that operates a wide
range of Israeli-made combat aircraft.
The
US Navy has long been looking for access to a
strategically located South Asian port for its Fifth
Fleet, established in 1996 for permanent deployment in
the Indian Ocean to bolster the US Middle East force.
US missile strikes during the war in Afghanistan
were executed, among others, by Fifth Fleet
warships, demonstrating America's ability to exercise
military power against states deep inland.
But
security sources said in a recent reassessment that
Washington realized that to successfully maintain its
sustained forward deployment posture in the Indian Ocean
region and to counter growing Chinese ambitions in the
area, it needed access to strategically located bases
like Trincomalee.
The United States has
acknowledged the Indian Navy as a "stabilizing force" in
the Indian Ocean and wants a closer working relationship
with it that includes arrangements to patrol the sea
lanes from the North Arabian Sea to the Malacca straits
off the Singapore coast.
Since
October 2001, Indian Navy ships, along with the US Navy,
have been patrolling the piracy-ridden
Malacca Straits, through which pass over 80 percent of
Japan's oil supplies from the Middle East.
The
Trincomalee connection will further tighten the US
security network.
(Inter Press
Service)
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