Beijing flexes muscle in South China Sea amid India-ASEAN maritime exercises

China’s maritime militia sent several boats close to the area in the South China Sea where the warships of India and the 10 ASEAN nations were holding an exercise till Monday.

India and the South East Asian nations closely monitored the movement of the boats deployed by the maritime militia operating under the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Beijing’s move was apparently intended to assert its expansive claims on the South China Sea, flex its maritime muscles and to send out the message to New Delhi and the ASEAN capitals that it was not amused by the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (or AIME), a source told DH.

The boats of the communist country’s maritime militia at one point of time even came within 70-80 kilometres of the Indian and the ASEAN warships in the South China Sea.

The warships of the Indian Navy and its South East Asian counterparts, however, continued with the drill till its scheduled conclusion on Monday.

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The Indian Navy sent its destroyer INS Delhi and frigate INS Satpura for the first edition of the AIME. Admiral R Harikumar, the chief of the Indian Navy, travelled to Singapore for the inaugural ceremony of the drill. The harbour phase of the exercise was held at Changi Naval Base of Singapore from May 2 to 4, followed by the sea phase in the South China Sea on Sunday and Monday.

India in November 2022 elevated its 30-year-long ties with the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. It also moved to add more military heft to the relations with a maritime war drill with all the 10 countries of the bloc.

The week-long drill made India the 4th dialogue partner of the ASEAN to have a maritime exercise with the 10-nation-bloc, after China, the United States and Russia.

New Delhi’s move to step up maritime security cooperation with the South East Asian nations came amid China’s growing belligerence, not only along its disputed boundary with India in the Himalayas, but also in the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region.

The maritime militia controlled by the Chinese PLA Navy sent at least five boats close to the area where the Indian and the ASEAN warships were engaged in the drill, which was intended to enhance interoperability.

Ray Powell, who heads Project Myoushu (South China Sea) at Stanford University, United States, identified the lead boat of the flotilla of the communist country’s maritime militia as the Qiong Sansha Yu 00004.

He tweeted that it seemed very possible that the Qiong Sansha Yu 00004 and the other boats in the group might have changed course and instead of moving towards the disputed Spratly Islands sailed towards the scene of the AIME, with the primary objective of escorting the Chinese survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 10 to the Exclusive Economic Zone of Vietnam.

The South China Sea is a major waterway and the sea lanes in this region account for over $ 5 trillion of international trade. It has been at the centre of a territorial conflict between China and many of its maritime neighbours, like Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. Though an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) delivered a unanimous decision several years ago rejecting China’s expansive claims on the South China Sea, Beijing has steadfastly refused to adhere to it.