India proposes NATO-style military alliance

LARGER PICTURE:The proposal is that navies should work together to defeat threats posed by terrorists.

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New Delhi: India has launched its biggest effort at military diplomacy and proposed something like an Asian NATO, which will a military grouping to ensure the security of the Indian Ocean Region.

On Thursday, India did a US when it proposed a new international military framework to secure the Indian Ocean from terror threats.

The occasion was a symposium of Navy chiefs from 26 countries in New Delhi.

The proposal unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is that regional navies should pool their resources to defeat trans-national threats posed by terrorists.

"This requires a consensus-based approach, with a focus on pooling of resources and capacity building, information exchanges and development of interoperability in doctrinal and operational terms," Manmohan Singh said.

The move is New Delhi's biggest attempt at military diplomacy in recent times. And with a pan-regional construct, India seeks to establish itself softly as the biggest local player in the Indian Ocean Region.

The idea India floated was similar to the American concept of a 1000-ship Navy.

But India was anxious to play down similarities. Inclusiveness was the buzzword and a clear reference was to the US aversion to countries like Iran.

"We do not seek to exclude there have been initiatives that have lost their relevance since their foundations were based more on exclusion as a principle," Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Chief of Naval Staff, said.

But the conspicuous absence of the External Affairs Minister left a doubt on whether the move had the full backing of India's foreign policy establishment.