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[http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2008/11/23/7504936-sun.html
Look to the Indian navy to solve this problem
By ERIC MARGOLIS, TORONTO SUN
Updated: 23rd November 2008, 6:28am
The piracy epidemic now plaguing the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Horn of Africa is fascinating stuff. Brazen Somalia pirates have attacked 95 vessels year to date.
The corsairs still hold 16 ships and 250 sailors. Among them, a Ukrainian freighter loaded with T-72 tanks whose ultimate destination remains a mystery, and now a Saudi supertanker laden with two million barrels of oil valued at $110 million U.S. The pirates demand a $25-million ransom for the vessel and Filipino crew.
Western powers, including Canada, have increased naval patrols off the Horn of Africa. But the piracy epidemic underlines the urgent need to bring stability to anarchic Somalia, where millions face famine. Somalia's last government, a moderate Islamist movement, was overthrown in 2006 by the U.S. and ally Ethiopia.
One of the most interesting aspects of the pirate drama involves India. In a dramatic move, an Indian frigate, INS Tabar, stole the limelight by sinking a Somali pirate mother ship off the coast of Oman. Tabar had previously driven off other Somali buccaneers.
I first saw Tabar, a Soviet/Russian Krivak-III missile frigate, under construction at St. Petersburg's Baltiysky Zavod yards. This elegant warship carries the new Russian/Indian "BrahMos," the world's deadliest supersonic anti-ship missile, and the Israeli Barak missile system.
GROWING POWER
Tabar was on station in the Gulf of Aden escorting Indian merchantmen and ships of other nations. Her presence is the latest sign of India's growing maritime power, a subject about which I have been writing for two decades.
India is now making her maritime strength felt right to the mouth of the Red Sea, in the oil exporting Gulf, along Africa's east coast, and all the way south to Fiji and Australian waters.
Many Indian strategists regard the vast Indian Ocean as their nation's "mare nostrum," or exclusive sphere of influence.
India's steady naval expansion is designed to protect its commerce and long coasts and exert Delhi's growing influence around the oil-rich Gulf and South Asia. India's navy also is keeping a weather eye on the evolution of China's fleet from a coastal defence force into a true bluewater navy.
Just this week, a senior Chinese official caused a stir in Washington by hinting his nation was planning to build its first aircraft carrier (the U.S. has 11).
India's fleet includes an aircraft carrier, a refitting ex-Soviet carrier on order, at least 16 modern submarines, plus a series of nuclear-powered ones being built, 48 surface warships, a powerful naval air arm and advanced reconnaissance satellites.
India's growing navy might soon challenge the Indian Ocean's premier naval power, the United States, which regards the Gulf oil routes and Arabian Sea as its own pond.
NUCLEAR SUBS
India's acquisition of Russian Akula class nuclear-powered subs that do 40 knots submerged, the deadly BrahMos missiles (ideal for sinking carriers), and the Russian heavy, Tu-160 long-range bomber have the U.S. Navy watching warily.
In another important event barely noticed in the West, on Nov. 14 an Indian space probe hit the moon.
If India can deliver a probe to the moon, the same launchers and guidance systems can deliver nuclear warheads to North America, Europe or Australia.
India is testing a new 5,500-km medium ranged ballistic missile, Surya, which is expected to be upgraded into a true inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) with double the range. India also is deploying a submarine-launched, nuclear-armed ballistic missile.
India is placing new Agni-II intermediate missiles along the tense Tibet border in response, says Delhi, to more than 100 Chinese nuclear-armed missiles on the Tibetan plateau targeted at India.
The lesson to be drawn from all this is that India must be a force to be reckoned with in the Indian Ocean and Gulf as it advances its own oil, trade and political interests which inevitably will come to compete with those of the other two regional superpowers, the United States and China.
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