Former Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff Rear Admiral Raja Menon has said India’s Great Nicobar Island project is crucial to a maritime grand strategy to counter China’s maritime expansion.

Speaking on The Sandeep Unnithan show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6oW6NRhu9Y&t=1s), Admiral Menon said China’s grand strategy is a giant sweep westwards through the Indian Ocean into Africa and Eurasia, across the Atlantic to as far as Panama. “The Chinese actually control 129 ports in the world in 65 countries,” he said.

Menon highlighted China’s ‘Malacca dilemma’ acknowledged by its President Hu Jintao 20 years back— the fact that over 80 per cent of China’s oil imports flows through a 900-km corridor just 65 kilometres wide at its narrowest.

“If we have to establish superiority over the Malacca Straits, we need a place from which we can establish information dominance, a kind of Indian Pearl Harbor. And that is where the great Nicobar Island project comes in. We need to be there 24/7 right over the Malacca Straits, not only establishing our information dominance but also denying the enemy information dominance,” Admiral Menon said.

In a 2022 paper, ‘Reorienting Indian Military Grand Strategy, ’ Admiral Menon called the Great Nicobar Island project the fulcrum of India’s response to the growing Chinese naval presence in the Indo-Pacific and a means to offset the pressure by the Chinese military along the Line of Actual Control.

Link to Paper: - https://media.defense.gov/2022/Mar/28/2002964035/-1/-1/1/FEATURE_MENON.PDF).

The first phase of the Rs 72,000 crore Transshipment project, the Galathea Bay International Container Transshipment Project (ICTP), is to be completed in 2028, and the third phase by 2052. Link to feasibility report: https://tinyurl.com/3hrxv2tz The port is just 90 nautical miles north of the Malacca Straits.

Nearly 77% of China's maritime trade goes westwards— 172,000 merchant vessels, the biggest merchant navy in the world, and 77% of that goes through the Malacca Straits. China is going to make a serious challenge for the hegemony of the world through engineering, in which China excels,” Menon said.

Navies now had the ability not just attacking other navies but destroying and paralysing nations. The US for instance has fired 2,300 land attack missiles in the last 25 years, influencing the course of history.

Arjun Dev Singh

Arjun Dev Singh has a deep interest in defence, security, and strategic affairs. With a strong analytical lens and a passion for military and geopolitical developments, Arjun strives to bring clarity and context to complex national and international issues.