HONOLULU — As the U.S. seeks to bolster relations with India, which sees itself as a rising power in an unstable world, Hawai‘i is becoming a hot destination for Indian military men and diplomats as New Delhi refines its Pacific strategy.
The Indian navy’s INS Shivalik — the nation’s first Indian-built stealth warship — sailed into Pearl Harbor on June 27 to participate in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC).
“I believe that as the complexities and the tension arise in each of the countries, it is very important for all the nations, allies and countries to work and integrate seamlessly with each other and always be looking out for each other at all times,” said Cmdr. Akshay Kumar Raja, the Shivalik’s executive officer.
The ship’s participation in the exercise came after a series of recent missions near the Red Sea protecting international merchant ships from Yemeni-based Houthi militants, and then a voyage through disputed waters in the South China Sea.
“I do believe that as we move ahead in the future, we will have to use all the elements of national power to keep the threats at bay,” Raja said. “Shivalik was continuously deployed for three months with all the other ships of the Indian navy against the adversaries, the Houthis, which were posing a great threat to the vital energy flow which was going on from the transit corridor from the Gulf of Aden to the western coast of India.”
Shivalik sailed into Pearl Harbor for RIMPAC just after Honolulu think tank Pacific Forum wrapped up hosting a “Track 2 Dialogue” on Kaua‘i.
Unlike “Track 1” diplomacy between currently serving government officials, “Track 2” dialogues are held between private citizens and groups — usually academics and retired politicians, military officers and diplomats. The thinking is, in part, that they will be able to have franker discussions.
“This was the first iteration of an Indo-Pacific dialogue that we wanted to have between the two countries,” said Akhil Ramesh, a senior researcher at Pacific Forum who helped organize the meeting. “The two countries have had many Track 2 dialogues, but they’ve never had one focused solely on the Indo-Pacific. And this was the first one that touched upon all issues affecting the region. So that’s why this is unique.”
While the U.S. and India have sought closer relations, they are not allies. Though Washington has sought to increase cooperation with New Delhi as both countries navigate tensions with China, India also maintains close military and trade ties with Russia.
“(India) subscribes to the whole idea of multipolarity, so it would like to balance relations with different poles,” Ramesh said. “It sees the West as one pole and Russia as another. So it is not going to give up on one or the other. For the Indo- Pacific theater the West is a partner (for India), but for other theaters they have different partners.”
India is a member of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — better known as “the Quad” — which was initiated in 2007 by Japan’s then-prime minister, Shinzo Abe. It was widely seen as a response to China’s growing military, diplomatic and economic power. This year India is the Quad’s chair.
Among other disputes, India has been locked in a face-off with China over disputed territory in the Himalayas. The standoff turned deadly in 2020 with a series of small skirmishes between Chinese and Indian troops that stretched into 2021.
Rather than using guns, the soldiers fought in the mountains armed with clubs, machetes and knives in a series of small battles that killed 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers.
“India is the only (member of the Quad) that has lost soldiers to its clash with China,” Ramesh said. “The other three have not had that kinetic warfare. They have been in economic competition, they’ve been victims of economic coercion, but have not lost blood.
“For India it’s a much bigger thing to not just compete with China, but take on China on the battlefield — the Himalayas and in the Indian Ocean. So when it comes to China, it’s the No. 1 challenge for New Delhi.”
This year at RIMPAC, European countries, such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, sent ships for the first time, spurred in part by Europe’s own unease with China’s rising military might and influence, and tensions along key trade routes in the South China Sea.
While they trained in Hawai‘i, the leaders of NATO met in Washington, D.C., for the alliance’s summit that marked 75 years since its founding.
The leaders of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea also attended. During the summit, leaders criticized Russia, China and North Korea over their increasing military cooperation in the Pacific and the war in Ukraine. But as NATO leaders and their Pacific interlocutors sought to strengthen their ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss deepening their own ties.
India’s relationship with Russia — and Modi’s close ties to Putin, especially — has lead some Western analysts to question India’s motives.
But Ramesh said that it actually fits into New Delhi’s strategy to challenge Beijing, arguing that it allows Russia — which has become internationally isolated since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — an opportunity to have a major trading partner other than Beijing and “not just fall into China’s orbit more and more.”
Modi, a controversial nationalist leader who has been accused of authoritarian tendencies, has sought to portray India as a rising power beholden to neither China, the United States nor any other wealthy country.
Ramesh said that specially under Modi’s leadership, India has been trying hard to make itself the “leader of the global south,” providing development assistance in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. He noted India pledging support to Papua New Guinea after a deadly landslide in May.
At 1.5 million active-duty troops, India has the world’s second-largest military in terms of personnel, just behind China’s 2 million and ahead of the United States’ 1.3 million. It also has historically been one of the world’s largest weapons importers.
Russia has long been its top source of weapon imports, but New Delhi also has inked arms deals with companies in Israel, Europe, the United States and anyone else willing to do business.
In recent years India has sought to build up an arms industry of its own to produce ships, planes and weapons. The Shivalik, which was commissioned in 2010, was meant to be a major demonstration of that capability.
Raja said its participation in RIMPAC demonstrates “the fact that the Indian navy can operate anywhere in the world.”
“India is growing into a $5 trillion economy, so our trade routes and our energy-rich areas are spread all across the domains, be it in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and now, obviously, increasingly being in the Pacific Ocean,” Raja said.
“We truly believe that our participation and also a presence in the Pacific region with other allies and countries will help us to keep the adversaries at bay and also help at securing a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
