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What does strategically important place mean?

When it is said sabang port is strategically important or assumption islands are strategically important

Comments

  • Military significance is the most significant aspect.

    Securing SLOCs, maritime patrolling, anti-piracy, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, HADR missions, joint exercises etc all the covered in the definition of strategic domains.
  • startegically important = having potential to cause big difference or linked to survival
  • Strategic importance means mainly that the place is economically and militarily significant. Various factors are responsible for this.

    For Sabang :-

    Geo-strategic location
    Naval base, naval air station and maintenance and repair facilities
    Cargo handling infrastructure
    Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.
    busiest strait in the world
    Regional maritime trade

    Its significance is more than economic – India’s objectives should be and are perhaps more than mere commercial ones. In fact Sabang because of its small size and distance from the core Indonesian hinterland and ASEAN economic powerhouses, is not conducive for long-haul maritime trade. Moreover India would have to invest heavily to develop the current port into a full-fledged commercial port than into a naval base. However, the island already has an operational airport, which could simply be upgraded to allow military aircraft to land and refuel, thus ensuring functional strategic linkages with the Indonesian mainland.
    Thus it is better poised to be a strategic port than a full-fledged commercial one.

    That it would be used for strategic purposes is also indicated by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, who, during his official visit to New Delhi, stated that the port’s 40-meter depth is suitable for all kinds of vessels, including submarines.” . This statement has spurred speculations that India’s ‘acquisition’ of the Sabang port is driven not just by geoeconomic motivations as New Delhi has argued in its statements, but also from geostrategic ones.
    India’s IOR influence would increase counterbalancing the rapidly growing Chinese influence in the IOR . Monitor Chinese naval movements in the locale
    It is important for india to project itself as the ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean.
    It would play a great role in maintaining regional BoP.
    Due to its close proximity to A&N islands India would be able to better reconnoiter her eez.
    Preemptive blockading of the Malacca Strait during war time
    Base in the eastern IOR
    Regional maritime security.
    Fits with Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR)–New Delhi's initiative aimed at turning India into the prime multilateral facilitator and security guarantor in the IOR.
    Can be a nodal point for strategic collaboration within the India-US-Australia-Japan ‘Quad’ grouping.
    India’s Act East Policy
    Chokepoint
    Eyes-in-the-sky component - of course only if India gets included in malacca strait patrol - jakarta says that her navy never ventures into Malaysian or Singaporean waters whereas Indian navy desires to hold patrols inside the straits.
    Cooperative security framework

    Assumption Islands
    However Seychelles has said that India’s plans to build a military base “will not move forward”. But ai is important due to :-
    energy supplies
    Increasing influence in southern Indian Ocean
    Some political scientists saw this as emergence of an Indian 'String of Flowers' to counter China's 'String of Pearls
    China's navy deployment for somali piracy menace would have been reduced
    surveillance capabilities
    second choke point
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