Kannur: The Indian Navy has to play a more assertive role ahead, keeping sea lanes for commerce open, maintaining strategic balance and modernising itself into a technology-driven force to face asymmetric threats across the seas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.

He was dedicating the world class Indian Naval Academy, with an annual intake of 750 officer cadets, at Ezhimla, some 35km from the northern Kerala town of Kannur yesterday.

“The sea is increasingly becoming relevant in the context of India’s security interests and we must re-adjust our military preparedness to this fast changing environment. We have in place an ambitious plan for force modernization of the Navy which will contribute to the Navy’s emergence as a three-dimensional force”, said Dr Singh.

The Mumbai terrorist attacks highlighted the need for heightened vigilance and response to asymmetric threats emerging from the sea. Threats not only in the Arabian Sea area but also in the Indian Ocean, he said.

There was a marked increase in attempts by terrorist and other groups to use the blue waters around India for their nefarious purposes. The 7,600-km coastline, more than 1,200 island territories spread across the Indian Ocean, a large Exclusive Economic Zone and close ties with countries of the Indian Ocean Rim, and specially the Gulf region, were vital parameters.

The Navy, Coast Guard and intelligence agencies should coordinate their efforts much more effectively on a real time basis. “The Gulf is part of our valuable extended neighbourhood, separated only by the Arabian Sea, of which the Indian Navy is one of the sentinels. India and the countries of the Gulf have a shared view of peace and prosperity in this region. “Many Gulf countries look upon India as a friendly and benign neighbour on which they can depend in times of difficulty and need. Nearly five million people of Indian origin live in this Gulf region and make a living thereof”, he said. The Navy should safeguard sea-lanes of communication, through which passed the bulk of the country’s energy supplies and sea-borne trade. There was an inextricable link between India’s economic resurgence and our maritime power.

“These include the transportation of weapons of mass destruction, small arms and other weaponry through the oceans to the hinterland, the threat of piracy in international waters, organized crime, drug trafficking, environmental degradation, rising sea-levels, their consequences, illegal migration and human smuggling”, he said. He lauded actions taken by the Navy recently to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia.

Traditional naval powers continue to rely upon their sea-control assets while emerging powers were developing sea-denial capabilities. Increasingly, space and information technology were being harnessed for enhancing naval capabilities. The ongoing revolution in military Affairs and network-centric warfare had also impacted on the navies as the joint-ness between the land, air and naval forces increases and improves over times.