NEW DELHI - The Indian
navy is prepared to deploy vessels to the South China Sea to protect India's
oil interests there, the navy chief said on Monday amid growing international
fears over the potential for naval clashes in the disputed region.
India has sparred
diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block
off the coast of Vietnam. China claims virtually the entire mineral-rich South
China Sea and has stepped up its military presence there. Other nations such as
Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia have competing claims.
Indian state-run
explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a stake in a gas field in the Nam
Con Son basin, off Vietnam's south coast.
Indian Navy Chief
Admiral D.K Joshi said while India was not a claimant in the dispute over
territorial rights in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if
necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region.
"When the
requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests
are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are
prepared for that," Joshi told a news conference.
"Now, are we
preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is
yes," he said.
He described the
modernisation of China's navy as "truly impressive" and acknowledged
that it was a source of major concern for India.
Any display of naval
assertiveness by India in the South China Sea would likely fuel concern that
the navies of the two rapidly growing Asian giants could be on a collision
course as they seek to protect trade routes and lock in the supply of coal,
minerals and other raw material from foreign sources.
"It is one of the
most important international waterways and freedom of navigation there is an
issue of utmost concern to India because a large portion of India's trade is
through the South China Sea," said Brahma Chellaney, analyst at the Centre
for Policy Research, New Delhi.
Chellaney, however,
played down Joshi's comments, saying the Indian navy's focus would remain on
the Indian Ocean, which the Asian nation views as its strategic backyard.
New rules
In September 2011, an
Indian warship sailing in the South China Sea to the Vietnamese port of
Haiphong was challenged when a caller identifying himself as an official of the
Chinese navy warned the ship on an open radio channel that it was entering
Chinese waters.
Nothing happened, the
ship sailed on, and both India and China have since played down the incident,
with New Delhi saying the vessel was well within international waters in the
South China Sea and that there was no confrontation.
China's neighbours are
fretting about a recent Chinese media report on new rules that will allow
police in the southern Chinese province of Hainan to board and seize control of
foreign ships which "illegally enter" its waters from Jan. 1.
The Philippines on
Saturday condemned the Chinese plan as illegal and Singapore, home to the
world's second-busiest container port, said on Monday it was concerned.
Asked about the report
of China's plan to board ships, Joshi said India had the right to self-defence.
Estimates for proven and
undiscovered oil reserves in the South China Sea range as high as 213 billion
barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008
report. That would surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi
Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.
