It is high time India began looking beyond the Indian Ocean to the Indo-Pacific region as a whole in the transformed global maritime scenario, Vice Admiral (Retd.) M.P. Muralidharan said on Tuesday.
“More so as the world itself has shifted focus from the 20th century Euro-Atlantic view to an Indo-Pacific one, making the region critically important to all major powers,” he said, inaugurating ‘Maritime security of India: Challenges and policy options’, a three-day national seminar organised by Kerala University’s V.K. Krishna Menon Study Centre for International Relations.
India’s location at the base of continental Asia — above the Indian Ocean and close to its choke points — gives it positional advantage in the entire region; from Africa to south-east Asia and beyond into the Pacific Ocean, the retired naval officer who has held several positions, including Commandant, Ezhimala Naval Academy; Director General, Coast Guard, and member, Armed Forces Tribunal, said. The seminar will conclude on Thursday.
