India launches first home-built anti-submarine ship to counter China
First home-builtcraft of its kind can carry helicopters and engage in surface and aerial combat, as India beefs up its navy to counter China's
India yesterday unveiled its first home-built, anti-submarine warship in a move to deter China from conducting underwater patrols near its shores.
"I am sure INS Kamorta will serve this country effectively for a very long time," Jaitley said. "Our effective preparedness is always the best guarantee for peace in this region."
The move came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the largest locally built guided-missile destroyer and vowed to bolster the country's defences so "no one dares to cast an evil glance at India".
India is playing catch-up to China, which built 20 such warships in the past two years and sent a nuclear submarine to the Indian Ocean in December for a two-month anti-piracy patrol. The waters are home to shipping lanes carrying about 80 per cent of the world's seaborne oil, mostly headed to China and Japan.
"As China grows into a naval, maritime power, it will be more and more active in the Indian Ocean," said Taylor Fravel, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies China's ties with its neighbours. "Of course, it will not be due to some hostility or targeted at India, but because of its economic interests in the Indian Ocean, as a lot of trade passes through. Such a presence will certainly raise questions in India, but it need not necessarily be a cause of major conflict."