Madras, March 25: Vice-Admiral K.L. Kulkarni Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, said here to-day that the Indian Ocean had been declared an area of peace and a 1971 United Nations resolution supported it. If the super-powers and the regional powers patrolled this area, “certainly there will be a lot of tension, and we will be very much concerned about it,” he added.
The Vice-Admiral told a press conference that the Government of India’s policy was quite clear on this issue, in that the Indian Ocean should be a zone of peace.
Replying to a question, the Vice-Admiral said: “Diego Garcia does not directly affect our defence capabilities. It does affect, if tensions are created in the area by the movement of ships belonging to the super-powers. The littoral States in the Gulf area are arming themselves with the latest sophisticated weapons, and in the context of the geographical situation in which India is placed, it will certainly affect us.”
The Vice-Admiral pointed out that France and the Soviet Union had stated that they would send their ships to cruise in the Indian Ocean. “It is our area much more than others,” he said.
The Vice-Admiral said the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were the “eastern sentinel” of the country and “their defence is my major concern at the Eastern Naval Commander.”
He said negotiations were in an advanced stage regarding collaboration arrangements with certain foreign countries to build patrol boats. Once the decision was taken, the Mazagon Docks at Bombay would be entrusted with building these boats.
Replying to questions he said a new era of naval aviation would be developed in the 1980s. The Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier was certainly not out-dated. “What we need is modern types of aircraft that can be deployed from the ship,” he added.
