- Sunday, April 28, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA is believed to be setting up a naval facility on Agaléga, a remote island in Mauritius in the south-western Indian Ocean, Al Jazeera on Tuesday (3) reported, citing satellite imagery, financial data and on-the-ground evidence.
The Qatar-based news channel cited military experts who have gone through the evidence collected by its investigative unit saying that an under-construction airstrip in Agaléga will almost certainly be used by the Indian Navy for maritime patrol missions.
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Agaléga, which is 12 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide, is located about 1,100 kilometres from Mauritius’ main island. About 300 people inhabit the island.
Aeroplanes now use a short 800-metre landing strip to land on Agaléga and the new airstrip will be as long as sunways used by big aeroplanes at large international airports.
“It’s an intelligence facility for India to stage air and naval presence in order to increase surveillance in the wider southwest Indian Ocean and Mozambique channel,” Abhishek Mishra, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
“”Based on my personal information, my conversations with all these people in my circle, the base will be used for the berthing of our ships and the runway will be mostly used for our P-8I aircraft,” Mishra said, referring to India’s P-8I maritime patrol aircraft that can be put to use for surveillance, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare.
The Indian Navy did not give any immediate response to the Al Jazeera report, PTI reported. It also did not get any response from either India’s ministry of external affairs or the ministry of defence.
Samuel Bashfield, a researcher at the National Security College at the Australian National University, said the southwest Indian Ocean is a zone where India needs to have areas where their aircraft can support their ships and also where it has areas that can be used as launching pads for operations.
“I think it’s an absolutely perfect spot for a military base,” Bashfield, whose research focuses on strategic and geopolitical issues in the Indian Ocean region, was quoted as saying by the Arab news outlet.
Pictures and data show that over the last couple of years, the island has become home to hundreds of construction workers living in a semi-permanent camp on the northern tip of the island, the report said.
India sought access to the island in 2015 to set up an air and naval staging point for surveillance of the southwest Indian Ocean in the way some other nations operate, like the joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia, according to an article which was published in the website of Australia’s Lowy Institute in March.
“Comparing the most recent images from Google Earth to the same location as seen in 2014 shows a new 3000-metre runway – capable of hosting the Indian Navy’s new Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft – and considerable apron overshadows the existing airfield in the middle of the island,” the article said.
Media reports about the presence of the military base first came out in 2018 but both Mauritius and India have denied that the project is meant for military use and said the infrastructure will only benefit the islanders.
Mauritius prime minister Pravind Jugnauth has categorically denied that the construction is for military use.
“Let me reiterate, most emphatically and in unequivocal terms, that there is no agreement between Mauritius and India to set up a military base in Agaléga,” he said in his country’s parliament recently.
However, despite Mauritius’ claims, there is no denying that the Indian Ocean is critical for India’s strategic interests since China is trying to increase its presence in the region.
“We see in the last few years that the Indian Ocean is becoming much more multi-polar in nature,” Bashfield said.
“We see China asserting greater influence and we see various Chinese military platforms in the Indian Ocean,” he said, referring to China’s military base in Djibouti and access to several other ports in the region.
According to Mishra, India has also stepped up its game as a result. India has provided coastal radar systems to nations like Maldives and Mauritius in the region and with a facility at Agaléga, it will be able to track ships near the crucial Mozambique Channel.
“The aim of the Agaléga Island agreement which India and Mauritius have entered into is for the island to act as a crucial node in expanding India’s overall footprint in the region,” Mishra said.
