NEW DELHI: Bearing the brunt of China’s aggressive expansionist tactics in the South China Sea, the Philippines now wants India to join the relatively new ‘Squad’ strategic alliance it has forged with the US, Australia and Japan to counter such threats in the crucial Indo-Pacific region.
Pointing to China’s “illegal, coercive and disruptive Grey Zone” tactics to claim territory and build militarised artificial islands in the South China Sea region, Philippines chief of staff of the armed forces General Romeo S Brawner said countries like India and South Korea should also be ‘included’ in the Squad.
China was clearly the big dragon in the room when top military officers of the ‘Quad’ (India, US, Australia and Japan) and the Philippines got together to discuss maritime security challenges in the Indo-Pacific during the Raisina Dialogue here on Wednesday. “The three artificial islands created by China give it effective control over the South China Sea. They have built a 2.7-km runway, with air defence and other missile systems, on Mischief Reef…Moving forward, it is our belief that they will take full control of the South China Sea,” Gen Brawner said.
China has been strong-arming its neighbours in the South and East China Seas as well as the Taiwan Strait to push its territorial claims, flouting all international norms. Japan, on its part, is doubling its defence spending to improve its current war-fighting capabilities and prepare for the future, said Japanese chief of joint staff Gen Yoshihide Yoshida.
US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo, who also dwelt upon the prospect of China forcibly intervening in Taiwan, in turn, said all countries that believe matters should not be “settled by force” should build and maintain a strong deterrence posture.
China, with the world’s largest Navy of 370 warships and submarines, now of course also deploys seven to eight naval vessels on a permanent basis in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), including dual-purpose research or spy ships to map oceanographic and other data useful for navigation and submarine operations.
Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said India believed it was its responsibility to ensure IOR remains peaceful and stable, with unhindered passage of trade. “A Navy that does not deploy does not deter. So, we have been deploying far and wide…We are quite capable of maintaining MDA (maritime domain awareness) in the IOR. We are aware of who is doing what, where and how,” he said.
India is “keeping a close watch” on dual-purpose and other naval vessels operating in the IOR, , Admiral Tripathi added.