July 26, 2007: India has opened its second foreign
base, a electronic monitoring station in northern Madagascar. There, India has
radars and electronic monitoring equipment. Some 2,500 kilometers to the
north-east is the American base on Diego Garcia island. India has leased an
atoll to the east of Madagascar, in the Mauritius islands, for another
monitoring station. These two bases, in addition to providing the Indian navy
with a real-time picture of what's happening off the coast of Africa, also
monitors the most heavily used routes of supertanker (ships too large for the
Suez canal) traffic going around the Cape of Good Hope. India already has
similar monitoring stations on its east and west coasts. In addition, India has
berthing rights for its warships in Oman, enabling its warships to regularly
visit the Persian Gulf, and trouble spots like the Somali coast (as part of an
international anti-terrorism and anti-piracy patrol).
A lot of this new base activity is believed to be a
counter to Chinese moves into the Indian ocean. China is now a major investor
in Africa, especially in oil field development. China also has a monitoring
base off the coast of Burma, in the Coco islands. India just opened its first
foreign base last month, in Tajikistan, where is stationing aircraft and
training Tajik pilots.
