Inaugural Address by Cmde Rajan Vir

The Delhi branch of the IMF held its annual seminar at the India International Centre, New Delhi on 27 Feb 2015. We were delighted to have Cmde Rajan Vir amongst us and his inaugural address highlighted the significant role being played by the IMF with its committed and selfless approach to spreading maritime awareness in the country through its numerous initiatives.

We were also privileged to have Admiral VS Shekhawat (Retd), former Chief of the Naval Staff and a large number of senior veterans in the audience.

Aim of Seminar

The Delhi seminar’s endeavour has been to highlight contemporary issues affecting maritime security and this seminar has reflected this over the years. In previous years the topics have included non-military aspects of India’s maritime power, self-reliance which is so integral to being a power of any reckoning, the importance of securing our maritime frontiers and how our maritime forces, primarily the Navy and the Coast Guard are adapting to the evolving threats in the 21st century. Accordingly, the theme for this year had been aligned with the Indian Navy’s “Ensuring Secure Seas for a Resurgent Nation”.

Maritime Security Dynamic of IOR

The maritime security dynamic in India’s area of interest is in a constant state of flux with the interplay amongst nations, both regional and extra-regional making it difficult to predict the course of events before they unfold. The 21st century belongs to Asia and it is on its waters that the ‘Great Game ‘will be played, the beginnings of which are becoming discernible by the day. The country entered an era of hope and optimism in May 2014. In the ten months since the one defining factor has been India’s engagement with the world as a nation to be reckoned with. We have reached out to nations far and near and revitalised important relationships – an Indian PM visited Australia after 28 years and the Pacific Islands perhaps for the first time ever. This vigour in pursuing a focused foreign policy agenda is reflected in the attention being given to India’s inherent maritime bias. The significance of the PM’s visit to INS Vikramaditya, his first outside Delhi after assuming office, his commissioning of INS Kolkata, the increasing operational tempo of the IN and its participation in multilateral exercises like RIMPAC and a footprint extending from Vladivostok in the East to the shores of Southern Africa is not lost on anybody. The International Fleet Review scheduled to be held in February 2016 is one such initiative.

Keynote Address by Dr Manoj Joshi

Dr Manoj Joshi, one of India’s foremost strategy analysts with wide experience in this domain delivered the keynote address. His overview of the strategic picture was very incisive and set the tone for the rest of the Conference as some of the issues he addressed were alluded to most of the speakers who followed.

Session I

The distinguished and well-informed audience was provided with a comprehensive overview of how the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard are adapting themselves to address the contemporary challenges of securing our maritime frontiers and interests in consonance with our national objectives. IG KR Nautiyal. IG Coastal security at the Coast Guard Headquarters and Cmde Mahesh Singh, Principal Director Foreign Cooperation at the IHQ, MoD(N) ( formerly Naval Headquarters) gave excellent presentations which generated a very lively Q&A session in which their candid and focussed answers were greatly appreciated.

Session II

In the second session, two of the brightest young minds in the study of the maritime domain, Cdr Abhijit Singh and Cdr Sarabjeet Parmar, both serving officers, raised some extremely interesting and out-of-the-box perspectives which reflected their deep understanding of the maritime domain and our India’s points of interest. This led to many interesting questions being raised by the audience which were extremely well answered.

Summing Up by Moderators

The two sessions were chaired by Rear Admiral SY Shrikhande and Rear Admiral AR Radhakrishnan, (Retd) respectively who provided a succinct assessment of the presentations but time constraints prevented us from getting the full benefit of their expertise. This anomaly will be addressed in the next seminar.

Concluding Remarks and Vote of Thanks

The concluding remarks and the Vote of thanks were delivered by Cmde Ranjit Rai in his inimitable manner and without whose unflinching support, this seminar would not have been possible.