Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar. file | Photo Credit: ANI
Highlighting the benefits of “regional solutions to regional problems”, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on March 4, 2023 asserted that most of the contemporary challenges in the maritime domain can be addressed by “issue-based convergence” among like-minded nations. Good solution can be done.
Citing India’s experience, the Navy Chief said that working in smaller groups and regional structures is helpful in building trust, interoperability and overall results.
Admiral R Hari Kumar was speaking at the Raisina Dialogue with Admiral John Aquilino, Commander, US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Ben Key, UK Chief of Naval Staff and General Koji Yamazaki, Chief of Staff, Ministry of Defense of Japan.
Admiral Kumar said India’s policy in the region is based on the principles of respect, dialogue, peace and prosperity and is guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of SAGAR or Security and Growth for All in the Region.
Responding to a question on the Indian approach of working with partner countries to address challenges in the maritime domain, Kumar said they are both “non-traditional and trans-national” and cannot be addressed by any nation alone. Is.
“There is a need for cooperation…that is something we are always looking forward to in the maritime sector – to find out how to cooperate, how to work together,” he said.
He said, “In doing so, I would say today that we are seeing issue-based convergence. We may not agree on some things, but we will agree on many other issues. So, we come together on those matters.” “
“We are looking at regional solutions to regional problems,” Admiral Kumar said.
The Navy chief also cited the advantages of regional groupings such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), comprising 25 participating nations, the Colombo Security Conclave and the Goa Maritime Conclave.
“When we work in small groups, it serves a lot of purposes. For example, it builds a lot of trust between partner countries; you work towards capacity building and that results in interoperability, There is an increase in domain awareness and regular engagement. And all this ultimately leads to maritime security,” he said.
He said, “There is a saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. That’s why we look forward to prosperity together. India is a country in the region that sees everyone prospering together.”
The Navy chief said technological innovations including space-based surveillance, artificial intelligence and electronic intelligence are helping maritime commanders to have better maritime domain awareness.
Also, he said that the Ukraine war showed the speed with which countermeasures are developed for all new technologies.
“There are a lot of technological innovations that are happening. We saw it in the Ukraine war as well,” he said.
Admiral Kumar said that significant developments have taken place in the areas of space based surveillance and maritime domain awareness.
Kumar said transparency in the ocean is difficult due to its large space and covering the entire spectrum of the ocean would require a large number of assets and is cost-intensive.
“There is a need to harness the available technology for this,” he added.
In his remarks, General Koji Yamazaki said that cyberspace and outer space are two important domains where “our adversaries are very active”.
“Japan is working towards building comprehensive defense capabilities to become secure and resilient in this regard,” he added.
Admiral Aquilino said the advantage of AI in the short term is real-time decision making.
At the same time, he said it is important not to forget that the military has a human dimension and interaction.