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Fleet Review is among the world's biggest

The International Fleet Review, which gets underway in full swing in Bombay on Friday morning, would mark two years of clinical planning by the Western Command of the Indian Navy.

It would be the first international fleet review in India, and is among the world's biggest; bigger than the millennium review conducted at the New York harbour by the United States of America last year.

The review, while hosting chiefs of several navies and all living former chiefs of the Indian Navy, would have a noticeable absentee - Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat.

Bhagwat is no more considered a former navy chief in official parlance.

Ironically, Naval Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar, who took over from Bhagwat after the latter's unceremonious exit, has been continuing with several policies of his predecessor.

Bhagwat was the first to plan for the seas of the 21st century. One of his first visits was to Japan with which he dreamt of, and today India wants, a tie-up against future Chinese threat.

The Japanese Navy is represented by JDS Amagiri, a destroyer of the Asagiri class, and a high level naval delegation.

The Chinese in contrast will not be at the IFR. But their ships would be visiting India by May end for the first ever joint exercises between the two countries, Admiral Sushil Kumar told rediff.com in a pre-IFR interview in New Delhi.

Notably, Pakistan was not even invited. Admiral Kumar told rediff.com that it was a government decision.

But India's old friends are going to be present in full strength. Indian Navy's maritime diplomatic efforts seem to be paying off well. Most countries on the Indian Ocean rim have turned up for the review.

Russian ships - Admiral Vinogradov and Admiral Panteleev - will enter Indian waters for the first time after the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago while Russian Naval Chief Admiral V I Kuroedov is making one of his first foreign visits after the Kursk tragedy.

Sri Lanka's Naval Chief Vice Admiral Daya Dandagiri is also in Bombay.

Thailand will be represented by Admiral Navee Santikanavin while Singapore has sent one of the world's most sophisticated ships under the command of a Sikh born a Punjab village.

The review may also achieve what desperate attempts by the Ministry of External Affairs and Track II diplomacy have not been able to achieve after the world developed cold feet about their relations with India post-Pokhran II.

In this context, the presence of Australian Naval Chief Vice Admiral D J Shackleton and the HMAS Darwin is significant. Australia had even withdrawn its defence attaché in protest against the May 1998 nuclear tests and restored the official only recently.

It is not all that bad for India at the review. INS Viraat, its only aircraft carrier, will resume active duty after its refit through the review. Flaunting several new and upgraded weapon systems and other technology, the aircraft carrier would go in for the stipulated inspection immediately after the review. Once the inspection is done with, it would be officially back in service.

Navy would also flaunt its three Delhi class, indigenously built frontline battle ships - INS Delhi, INS Mumbai and INS Mysore - apart from the Sindhushastra submarine, the first Indian submarine capable of firing the Klub anti-ship cruise missile.

COMPLETE COVERAGE
International Fleet Review-2001

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