Indian Ocean: A Zone of Benefits or Conflicts?
Russia’s role is significant in creating what nuclear-armed India is today. Russia as a major contractor of submarines, warships’ plans and missile technology to India is generating a suspicion in Chinese threat perception. There are relatively greater chances of naval arms race if we consider historical Indo-Russian naval cooperation and contemporarily increased exchange of naval collaboration between U.S. and India.
by Ahsan Ali Zahid and Hasan Ehtisham
( July 8, 2015, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) Indian Ocean can be saved from becoming a zone of conflicts if India stops thinking it would like to own it for its name. If the West allows New Delhi to build a blue water navy, it would be just a matter of time that their creation would become their nightmare. Indian Ocean ranks fifth largest, covering 20% of the water and approximately 60 islands owned by different states and hosts four major waterways – the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab-el Mandeb and the Suez Canal.
