New Delhi: The Indian Navy has begun its operational deployment in the South China Sea disputed waters.
The warships INS Delhi and INS Shakti landed in Singapore.
According to Navy spokesman Commander Vivek Madhwal, “the visit is part of the ‘operational deployment’ of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet.”
The Navy did not say which nations the ships would visit or if the Indian Navy would participate in South China Sea patrols with nations like the US or Japan.
Large areas of the sea are unlawfully claimed by China as its own. Five other nations that are embroiled in a maritime territorial conflict with China—the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan—contest the same.
At sea, the INS Delhi and INS Shakti play a variety of duties. The latter is a fleet support ship that may be used to deliver supplies, water, and gasoline to another ship in mid-sea.
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan), and in the south by the Indonesian islands of Borneo, eastern Sumatra and the Bangka Belitung Islands, encompassing an area of around 3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi). It communicates with the East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait, the Philippine Sea via the Luzon Strait, the Sulu Sea via the straits around Palawan, and the Java Sea via the Karimata and Bangka Straits. The Gulf of Thailand and the Gulf of Tonkin are part of the South China Sea.
$3.4 trillion of the world’s $16 trillion maritime shipping passed through South China Sea in 2016. Oil and natural gas reserves have been found in the area. The Western Central Pacific accounted for 14% of world’s commercial fishing in 2010.
