All posts by : Muhammed Saad

After becoming a member of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) as Observer in March, India is seeking to post Navy Liaison Officers on the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar and also on the European maritime surveillance initiative in the Strait of Hormuz for improved Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). \”We are running carefully with France who\’s a pre-eminent member of IOC to put up a Naval LO on the RMIFC in Madagascar. We also are working on posting a Naval LO on the European Maritime Awareness inside the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) in Abu Dhabi,\” a defence source advised The Hindu. \”This will be in the basic realm of enhancing linkages of the Navy\’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram with other IFCs and emerge as the repository for all maritime information inside the IOR,\” the supply said. The Los are anticipated to be published in the following few months. The RMFIC capabilities under the aegis of the IOC of which India became an Observer in March 2020 along with Japan and the United Nations. The IOC is a regional forum within the southwest Indian Ocean, comprising 5 nations — Comoros, France (Reunion), Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. China and the European Union (EU) were Observers inside the IOC given that 2016 and 2017, respectively. The Navy LO is expected to be posted at EMASOH with the aid of July and on the RMIFC via September or October, the supply said. India has an LO at the IFC in Singapore for over 4 years now. The EMASOH headquarters is composed of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and French officers and based at the French naval base in Abu Dhabi. The intention is \”to screen maritime pastime and assure freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.\” On February 5, the initiative was declared operational via the French Ministry of Armed Forces. The Navy installation the IFC-IOR in December 2018 inside the premises of the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram to music maritime movements inside the vicinity. France has become the first united states of America to set up a Liaison Officer at the IFC-IOR accompanied with the aid of the U.S. And several other countries inclusive of Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom have announced their intention to publish LOs. Currently, infrastructure is being constructed to house overseas officers. Pre-fabricated structures are being constructed and are predicted to be geared up utilizing the quit of the year, a second supply said. Of late, India has signed a sequence of white transport agreements, Logistics Support Agreements (LSA) and maritime cooperation agreements with numerous countries. For instance, on the digital summit, India and Australia announced a joint statement on a shared imaginative and prescient for maritime cooperation within the Indo-Pacific wherein they agreed to \”deepen military-to-navy cooperation and toughen MDA within the Indo-Pacific area via enhanced alternate of information\”. As reported by The Hindu in October last, the IFC-IOR is coordinating with similar centres throughout the globe. These include Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Centre (VRMTC), Maritime Security Centre- Horn of Africa(MSCHOA), Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP), Information Fusion Centre-Singapore (IFC-SG), and International Maritime Bureau – Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC).

Pakistan has categorically rejected India\’s malicious assertions based on a complete distortion of facts to advance its false and self-serving narrative in which the remarks of Prime Minister Imran Khan have been completely twisted by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Office Spokesperson, in an announcement today (Monday), said that this mischievous attempt is profoundly condemnable. The Spokesperson said that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs\’ announcement on Friday is a continuation of their frantic battle to redirect worldwide consideration from India\’s state terrorism in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its proceeding with wrongdoings against the Kashmiri individuals. She said Pakistan has been the principal victim of terrorism, including terrorism perpetrated against our people from across the border and tens of thousands of our citizens have lost their lives, while thousands of our valiant law enforcement personnel have made the ultimate sacrifice in Pakistan\’s resolute fight against terrorism. She said Pakistan\’s sacrifices and contribution to combating the scourge of terrorism have been recognized by the international community. The representative said Senior Indian authorities and other Indian commentators have frequently boasted about destabilizing parts of Pakistan and their nefarious designs to use terrorism as state policy against Pakistan. She said today, the Hindutva-driven saffron terror against India\’s minorities, Indian state-terrorism in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and India\’s use of terrorism as an instrument to destabilize its neighbors stands fully exposed. She said it is India that is looking to twist and distort the report of the UN Security Council\’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team to promote its anti-Pakistan propaganda. We are sure that the world community will not be misled. The Foreign Office said that Pakistan\’s job as a facilitator to the continuous peace process in Afghanistan has been broadly recognized worldwide. Pakistan has, since the start of the Afghan Peace process, alarmed the world about the role of spoilers region, who do not wish to see peace, stability and prosperity return to Afghanistan and waste no opportunity to create obstacles in the successful advancement of the peace process Pakistan wishes to reiterate that all relevant partner countries must guard against such attempts while supporting the process for an inclusive and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan.

The US military says. That ended more than a week ago after an unusual ceasefire between the armed group and Afghan government forces. It has carried out its first airstrike against the Taliban. No comment was made immediately after Friday\’s announcement. Col. Sonny Leggett, spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, said. An airstrike in the western province of Farah on Friday afternoon killed 25 Afghan fighters. Who attacked Afghan forces. Hours earlier, the US air force struck an unknown number of Taliban in southern Kandahar province on Thursday night. \”These were the first US airstrikes against (the Taliban) since the Eid ceasefire started,\” Leggett wrote. \”We reiterate: To allow the peace process to take hold, all sides must reduce violence,\” he added. Leggett did not elaborate on the airstrikes or their motives. An Afghan government official, however, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Since he was not allowed to speak to the media, the Associated Press reported. Farah attacks killed three senior Taliban commanders and at least 13 other militants. News Agency. On May 23, the Taliban announced a three-day surprise ceasefire with Afghan forces beginning the next day to coincide with Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan\’s fasting month. The Kabul government welcomed the change and directed its troops to hold to the ceasefire. There has since been an overall drop in violence across the world, with the Afghan government speeding up the release of hundreds of Taliban prisoners and saying it\’s ready to begin the long-delayed peace talks with the Taliban. In February Washington signed a historic deal with the Taliban, promising to withdraw all US troops in exchange for security assurances.

A former Foreign Ministry official has made the allegation. By building infrastructure in Indian territory on the way to Original Control (LAC) in East Ladakh. What are the first intelligence reports available about the Chinese military violating the Indian border? Author of Home Affairs (MHA) and hence the book \”Hindu Terrorism: Internal Accounts of the Ministry of Home Affairs\”. Our sources supported the satellite image, another major infiltration could take place on April 17 These inputs on the People\’s Liberation Army\’s (PLA) transgressions and infrastructure development are available April 4 onwards. As per our inputs supported satellite imagery, another major incursion may that took place on April 17, says Mani. He added that the Americans after April 20. It also provided India with intelligence on enhancing their infrastructure. A bureaucrat within the secretariat of the Union Defence Ministry sat on American and our intelligence inputs for quite a 12 days before passing them on to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which is meant to require the ultimate call on the way to react to the given security threat, explains Mani. The official lamented the bureaucracy The well-connected government official-tuned-author laments that after the US approached India with intelligence on Chinese activity along the LAC within the third week of May, a bureaucrat within the Ministry of Defence (foreign intelligence inputs are usually forwarded to the MoD) corroborated them with Russia. \”From what I even have understood, Moscow categorically asked India to not worry about China and guaranteed the bureaucrat concerned that Beijing won\’t violate the established order along the road of Actual Control (LAC),\” discloses Mani. India\’s political leadership reacted to China\’s offer He notes concernedly that it wasn\’t until May 17 that the Indian political leadership started reacting to things along the China border. \”Due to a mistake of judgment by a bureaucrat in sitting on such sensitive inputs for days, we gave them the chance to build-up numbers and build up infrastructure on our side of the border,\” says Mani. Mani, who has spent a good amount of time within the corridors of power, explains that both the Ministry of Home Affairs also because the Ministry of Defence has its sources of intelligence. The Border Division within the MHA gets its inputs from the paramilitary forces manning the LAC, namely Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and therefore the Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB). These agencies have their local intelligence units (LIUs) performing on the bottom, he adds. We had our inputs on the Chinese activity at the Union Home Ministry before American intelligence corroborated them, he notes. Once there\’s an intelligence input, it\’s to navigate the labyrinthine of the secretariat before it reaches the desk of the Minister or the National Security Advisor (NSA). Mani says that the very fact that the political leadership got a politician file on the matter only in May reveals that the bureaucrats handling the matter within the Border Division and even the MoD weren\’t up to scratch in performing their duties. Mani, however, expresses confidence that despite scoring an early advantage, Indian forces are quite capable enough to match the Chinese PLA, worst involves worst. As things stand at the LAC now, the Chinese soldiers have reportedly retreated by two to 3 kilometers from a minimum of three points in eastern Ladakh, namely Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, and Patrolling Point 15. The de-escalation at the fourth potential flashpoint, Pangong Tso Lake area, remains being negotiated, with more military-level talks scheduled between the forces in the coming days. The Corps Commander Northern Command, general officer Harinder Singh, reportedly had a seven-hour-long meeting with Chinese Major General Liu Lin, commander of the PLA within the South Xinjiang region, on June 6 in Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC, during a bid to seek out an answer to the continued impasse

China at the Line of Actual Control is not the handiest thing India needs to fear. According to current media reports, China is developing its army presence in the Indian Ocean too. Satellite photographs in May this year endorse China\’s navy base at Djibouti is being modernized. The facility, set up in 2017 as a logistics assist unit, is being upgraded right into a full-fledged naval base with a 1,120-ft pier that can berth Chinese warships, which includes the Liaoning plane carrier. This follows China\’s enlargement of an artificial island within the Maldives, a development with seeming strategic overtones, main a few to say that China is encroaching on India\’s sphere of influence. Recent satellite photographs show security fences, sentry posts, and elevated watch towers inside the port, fuelling the hypothesis of the development of army facilities. There also are reviews that China is helping Bangladesh build a naval base at Cox Bazaar, such as wharves, barracks, ammunition depots, and a naval shipyard. It is the People\’s Liberation Army\’s Djibouti base that vividly demonstrates China\’s Indian Ocean ambitions. With an estimated location of nearly 250,000 square ft, China\’s Djibouti compound is no regular military base. With outer perimeter walls, watchtowers, and underground quarters capable of hosting an envisioned 10,000 troops, the facility is a veritable military garrison. China insists the undertaking is an \”aid facility\” meant mainly for anti-piracy missions within the Horn of Africa, however, analysts claim the base can helping other key missions along with intelligence collection, non-fight evacuation operations, peacekeeping operations help and counter-terrorism. When China first started deploying warships off the coast of Somalia for anti-piracy patrols a decade ago, Indian analysts believed China\’s maritime safety hobbies were usually commercial, and that the People\’s Liberation Army Navy or PLAN\’s were driven especially by way to defend Beijing\’s exchange and strength hobbies. That view is rapidly changing. Many now see China\’s rapid local expansion as a part of a broader effort to embed Beijing into the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean.