India has recently launched a new nuclear submarine. It comes as China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean grows, gaining access to multiple maritime choke points in the Indian Ocean. To learn about China's growing naval footprint in the region, TaiwanPlus spoke to Shekhar Sinha, a former vice admiral with the Indian Navy.
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00:00Why are Chinese naval vessels in the Indian Ocean?
00:04Their submarines are basically snooping around for the hydrology of our area.
00:11So are the ocean research vessels.
00:14They also have a very similar task of snooping, either underwater, hydrology,
00:19or when we do the missile firing, the signature of the missile radars.
00:24Why does China want to gain access to ports in the Indian Ocean region?
00:29China has got a policy of everything is dual use.
00:33They will take over, they will buy a port, or they will do the economic coercion to your neighboring countries.
00:40When they can't return the debt, the interest, they will ask for equity.
00:45In equity swap, they will get access to these ports.
00:48When you get access to these ports, not only for merchandise, not only for trade and commerce,
00:54but it can also be used by the warships.
00:57They already have Hambantota port.
01:00They also have Colombo port to some extent.
01:03Gwadar is with them.
01:05Djibouti port is with them.
01:07Only yesterday they have signed a security partnership with Morocco.
01:11So it means that we have an east coast of Africa, very close to the Mozambique channel,
01:17from where virtually every ship has to pass through,
01:20in a ship which is rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
01:23India has recently launched a new nuclear submarine.
01:26Is India trying to counter China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean?
01:31We have a second strike capability.
01:33This is the second in the series.
01:35We will be making more of these.
01:37The third one is about to be commissioned within five, six months.
01:40That will also be ready.
01:42These are called SSBNs, Nuclear Power and Nuclear Tipped Ballistic Missiles.
01:49India has a policy of no first use as far as the nuclear weapons are concerned.
01:54Meaning that we have the nuclear weapon, but we will want the first ones to use.
01:58If we are not the first ones, it means that we will respond to when we are attacked by a nuclear weapon.
02:04Now how do you attack? That is why it is called a second strike.
02:07First strike you will take from the adversary.
02:11And as a response you will launch a missile.
02:15How can you launch?
02:16You can launch from a land-based silo.
02:19You can launch from an aircraft airborne, for example, the Su-30.
02:23Or you can launch from sea.
02:25From sea, submarines are the best because they cannot be spotted.
02:31They are underwater and their position cannot be ascertained.