ISAS Insights

The troubled waters of South-China Sea have started spilling over on India’s relations with its East Asian neighbours. Two recent incidents underline this spill-over. One was on 22 July 2011, when India’s war ship INS Airavat was cautioned by China when it was about 45 nautical miles off the Vietnam coast after paying a friendship visit. The second has been in September 2011, when oil exploration by India’s public sector company Oil and Natural Gas Commission Videsh (OVL) in Vietnam’s territorial waters was taken objection to by China. Both the incidents have been played out with caution by the Chinese and Indian official circles. The INS Airavat incident involved a radio message to the Indian ship that it was in Chinese territorial waters which was claimed later to have not been reported to the respective foreign offices. The Chinese foreign office left the incident by reiterating its claims in the South China Sea but saying that it is looking for information on the incident through ‘competent authorities’.2 The Indian side underlined that there was no confrontation involved, while making it clear that India ‘supports freedom of navigation in international waters including South China Sea…in accordance with the accepted international law…to be respected by all’.3 The issue had actually been triggered by reports in the western media, The Financial Times of London (1 September, 2011).