During the 1970s, the US and Soviet Navies manoeuvred for base and refuelling facilities in the northwest quadrant of the Indian Ocean “” Berbera in Somalia on the Horn of Africa, Asmara in Ethiopia in the Red Sea, the island of Socotra off South Yemen, Muscat in Oman, and the island of Masirah off Oman. The US started building up Diego Garcia into a naval base. Neither Navy sought facilities from India. Warships of both navies enjoyed goodwill visits to Indian ports.
By the end 1970s, domestic opposition to the US supported Shah of Iran increased to an extent that a revolution was foreseeable. Nearby in Afghanistan, a pro-communist coup was initially successful but soon encountered opposition. Afghan leaders repeatedly sought urgent Soviet military assistance to suppress the opposition.
In anticipation of a Soviet threat to Western oil supplies from landward, the US had started pre-positioning the wherewithal, on board ships, for military intervention in the Persian Gulf from seaward.
Two separate crises coincided in end 1979. The Shah of Iran was overthrown in a coup. Soviet troops entered Afghanistan to assist the protégé government. Despite Soviet assurances that they had no intent to threaten Persian Gulf oil, the US felt it prudent to deploy, on a regular basis, ships from its 7th (Pacific) Fleet to the North Arabian Sea. A new US Central Command, headquartered in the US, was created for this theatre of operations. Whilst events in Afghanistan were still unfolding, the Iran”“Iraq War (1980-1988) erupted. Western navies had to be deployed to escort tanker convoys into and out of the Persian Gulf.
Significantly, this was also a time when relations between India and America showed signs of thawing following a visit by Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi to the US in 1985. A rapport developed between him and President Reagan and Indo”“US relations brightened. Successive US Defence Secretaries and US Chiefs of Naval Operations visited India. An Indian Naval Delegation visited the US Navy which was followed by ships visiting each others ports.
Developments in the 90s
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In the subsequent operations to evict Iraq, US warships bombarded Iraq from within the Persian Gulf. With bases in nearby Oman and Qatar and an overwhelming presence in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy had established itself in the Indian Ocean. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent withdrawal of its Navy from the Indian Ocean further helped its cause.
American desire to maintain a geo-strategic presence. It was a strategy based on long term considerations and not aimed at immediate objectives or securing access to oil.
In the years that followed, turbulence in Afghanistan, a rise in terrorist activities and the lessons that the US learnt in the war against Iraq forced it to review its strategy for the Indian Ocean, but that was in no way an indication of a reduction in presence. To the contrary, it only served to strengthen US resolve to maintain presence in the region.
In the northern Indian Ocean, India began to be seen as the pivotal regional power and her Navy as the pre-eminent regional Navy. Within the Indian establishment, there was a desire to engage with the US Navy that saw some high-level meetings on Confidence Building Measures and culminated with the introduction of the Malabar series of bilateral naval exercises. The exercises, which commenced in 1992, were held again in 1994 and 1995.
In 1995, the US established its Fifth (Indian Ocean) Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, to conduct operations in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf and the adjacent land areas. By 2000, the American Navy was the predominant Navy in the Indian Ocean.
In Perspective
By 1995, there were a host of navies trying to exert influence in the Indian Ocean region. Apart from the Americans there were the French, who had the next most significant presence, the British (who though, a considerably reduced lot, retained relevance), the Chinese and the Japanese, who too had begun to show some interest, primarily to protect their own maritime interests.
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