Morosini website Courtesy: EDR Magazine
17 August 2023

Connecting Italy’s Mediterranean and India’s Ocean

The Italian Navy sees in its multicultural "Mediterranean" nature, a similarity with the Indian Ocean as a connecting fabric that has enabled civilizations to flourish and prosper through the centuries. The shared concerns and cooperation between the Italian and Indian navies, now renewed, can bring prosperity with contemporary connectivity.

HMS Monmouth is pictured with the Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya during the vessels transit through the English Channel.

The 4,900 tonne frigate met up with the newest Indian aircraft carrier  – weighing in at a massive 45,000 tonnes and helped her safely through the busy English Channel.
 
Originally built for the Russian Navy as a modified Kiev class aircraft carrier, called Baku in 1987, India procured her in 2004 and she was accepted by the Indian Navy in a commissioning ceremony in November 2013.  

Following successful sea trials in July 2013 and aviation trials in September 2013 the carrier began her long journey to her new home of India escorted by auxiliary INS Deepak and Talwar class frigate INS Trikand.


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© Crown Copyright 2013
Photographer: LA(PHOT) Dean Nixon
Image 45156377.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk Courtesy: South Asian Voices
6 April 2023

The U.K.’s Indo-Pacific push

The UK has been admitted to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP, a significant step forward for its efforts in achieving its Brexit goals. The benefits will be more strategic than economic, as it gives the UK a place in the new ‘Atlantic-Pacific’ region.

Portuguese string of ports Courtesy: Diu Vanza Darji Samaj UK
28 October 2021

The Portuguese string of ports

Five hundred years before the ‘string of pearls’ or strategic naval bases surfaced as part of China’s global dominance plan, Imperial Portugal was a naval power which tried to impose its hegemony over vast swathes of the Indian Ocean. What informed this grand vision of a 16th-century Portuguese seaborne empire?

Source: Shutterstock Courtesy: Shutterstock
10 June 2021

U.S. Defense Budget: Mixed signals for the Indo-Pacific

On 28 May 2021, the Biden administration submitted a much-delayed Defense Budget to Congress, asking for $715 billion for 2022, a 1.6% increase over the previous year’s $703.7 billion. This marginal increase highlights the U.S.’s shrinking capacities compared with China, which spends less than a third of the U.S. on defence. This Budget is focussed on challenges in the U.S.’s geographic vicinity, not the administration’s resolve to counter the threat of China from a position of strength.

46658837911_46b856f8ef_o Courtesy: MEA Flickr
10 January 2019

India, Norway and the Blue Economy

Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg’s visit to India earlier this week had a central focus: strengthening economic and technological cooperation in the Blue Economy. This is an area in which her country has considerable expertise and with which Indian business needs to collaborate in managing industries, such as oil, shipping, fisheries and aquaculture in a ‘green’ way

global-commons-870_0 Courtesy: Global Environment Facility
15 August 2018

India in the Global Commons

Since Independence, India has been consumed by its domestic priorities. Now, with increasing integration with the world and a huge stake in global stability, it is time to focus on the global commons. India has a seat on the hightable to design and shape the rules for the governance of the global commons. In this special Independence Day Briefing, Gateway House examines India’s engagement with four global commons – technology, outer space, cyber and the oceans – and makes recommendations on how best they can be governed for our collective future.

VizagPort Courtesy: Wikimapia
6 September 2017

Innovation’s role in the Blue Economy

The new global emphasis on the Blue Economy is attracting the interest of governments, development agencies, and more recently, social impact investors. A marked change from previous years is the increased participation of developing and coastal economies, which are its very beneficiaries

Indian_Navy_flotilla_of_Western_Fleet_escort_INS_Vikramaditya_(R33)_and_INS_Viraat_(R22)_in_the_Arabian_Sea Courtesy: Wikipedia
7 April 2016

India’s future is sea-facing

India needs a more developed strategic focus on its eastern-western seaboards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the lead, investing considerable diplomatic capital and time in his visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and island nations in the Arabian Sea. In the east, he is progressively engaging with ASEAN, Japan and Australia