Ajit Karn
Myanmar’s Coco Islands are close by, and India is monitoring Chinese-aided activity there.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deployed deterrence capabilities in the island territories of Andamans and Nicobar Islands to project dominance in the Indian Ocean and counter China’s growing naval presence in the region.
While national security planners and armed forces remain tight-lipped about the tri-service AN Command’s deterrence capabilities, India is monitoring Chinese-aided activity in the nearby Coco Islands of Myanmar and at Ream national park in Cambodia, close to a naval base in Sihanoukville province. Beijing’s strategic footprint is visible in Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Balochistan, Chah Bahar in Iran, and Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates, in addition to its first overseas military base in Djibouti.
Inputs from sources of intelligence indicate that the Myanmar dictatorship extended and widened the runway at Coco Island strip from 1300 to 2300 meters and constructed sheds in 2021 and 2022, with transport aircraft operating from the strip to supply the island, which is located just 55 kilometers north of the Indian AN islands. While there is no permanent Chinese presence on the Coco Islands, they are frequently observed at the remote Myanmar outpost, which has approximately 150 Myanmar personnel.
India expects an air defense and air surveillance capability to be constructed on the southern tip of Coco, where a causeway connecting the southern tip to the next island is presently being constructed and land is being cleared.
Ream National Park, which the US suspects will be the second Chinese overseas base after Djibouti and the first PLA facility in the Indo-Pacific, is expected to have a similar air defense and air surveillance capability with an expanded radar system. Cambodia and Laos are China’s closest ASEAN allies, with the PLA and Cambodian Navy conducting their first naval exercise together in Cambodian waters last month.
In spite of Myanmar and Cambodia’s denials that they are part of China’s game plan, the facts on the ground indicate otherwise: both countries are a part of Beijing’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and lack the financial resources to develop air defense capabilities and hardened shelters.
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Given China’s expanding footprint in the Indo-Pacific and its frequent presence of strategic vessels in the region, Indian security strategists have expedited the upgrade of military infrastructure on the AN Islands and Lakshadweep Islands. Land- and sea-based deterrence capabilities have been deployed as development of Campbell Bay in Great Nicobar Island is accelerated. Similar deterrence capabilities have been deployed on the east coast of India in Andhra Pradesh by the eastern command of the Indian Navy in order to counter any military threat. The AN Command will become the first line of defense for the Indian military and will be part of a theater command with a concentration on China’s rise in the future.
