A leading Arab media organization, al Jazeera, claimed that India is building a naval facility on the remote Mauritian island of Agalega in the southwestern Indian ocean satellite images show the atoll’s most important. The new infrastructure is a 3 000 meter runway with a large apron for aircraft. There are also large jetty facilities in deeper water under construction and what appear to be barracks and fields. Some military experts have told al Jazeera that these structures are for military use. Al Jazeera obtained documents and testimony that the construction of various infrastructures is for military purposes, particularly surveillance or maritime patrol missions.
Similar reports surfaced in 2018, and both India and Mauritius denied the construction was for military purposes, claiming it was for the needs of the island’s residents. Still, on august third, al Jazeera published an extensive investigation into the development of a military facility on north agilena island. According to this investigation, a dozen bulk carriers delivered construction materials to galanga from Indian ports. Al Jazeera is confident that India’s 250 million dollars investment in building an airfield port and communications hub on this remote island is not intended to help Mauritius to improve its ability to police its territorial waters, a perfect spot for a military base. The outpost at galanga will help support India’s fleet of Boeing p8i maritime surveillance aircraft and will increase surveillance in the wider southwest Indian Ocean and Mozambique channel. The p8 is a cutting-edge maritime patrol aircraft that can perform anti-submarine, anti-surface, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.
While these planes have anti-shipping and anti-submarine capabilities, their peacetime utility comes from the advanced senses, command and control systems, radars, and intelligence-gathering equipment they use on routine missions. The galanga isn’t the only island in the Indian Ocean that has been modified for p8 use. Military facilities on India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, which lie at the confluence of the bay of Bengal and the Andaman sea in the northeastern Indian Ocean, have been upgraded to better support. India’S patrol aircraft missions. Indian ocean region is increasingly becoming a hot spot for nations to expand their geopolitical influence. The southwest Indian Ocean region is very important for India to have areas where its aircraft can support its ships, as well as areas where it can use its launching pads.
For operations and a perfect spot for a military base, India’s increasing reach in Indian and pacific oceans in recent years, India has increased its activities and reach in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The most prominent of these is Australia, with which India’s military exercises and other exchanges have accelerated. Significantly. This year, India has been invited to participate as an observer in the talisman saber, Australia’s prestigious military exercise. This military exercise included forces from japan and south Korea as well as the united states.
Australia has also expressed a desire for India to take part in the talisman saber exercise in 2023. Also, India’s navy recently announced a task force of four warships, which will soon begin a two-month deployment to Southeast Asia, the south, china, the sea, and the western pacific, and that the mission will include exercises with quad partners such as Australia. The steady progress on India’s new strategic military base comes as New Delhi seeks to strengthen its already strong defense ties with Australia and other countries concerned about china’s rise in the region. Effective maritime domain awareness will aid India in forming international alliances as well as serve as a deterrent to both state and non-state adversaries by signaling reach and an intent to protect interests in emerging maritime threats in a specific area.
