Chittagong in Bangladesh, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and Gwadar in Pakistan are the three Chinese-run ports in South Asia, and they form a “triangle of death” around India.
By offering energy and military hardware agreements, New Delhi hopes to pull Dhaka and Colombo back into its camp and preserve strategic control in its immediate neighborhood.
India is building a port in Sri Lanka and has offered to maintain Bangladesh’s Russian military gear in exchange for better transportation links and power purchase agreements. The Bangladesh Air Force is reportedly more interested in European fighter planes than in the Indian indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas for its fleet modernization efforts.
Bangladesh’s Power Struggle
Submarine base BNS Sheikh Hasina will open at Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, in the start of 2023. The subs will be provided by China. Now for the actual stitching. China helped fund the construction of the base. Half of the world’s commerce goes through the Bay of Bengal because it is located on top of the maritime lanes of communication connecting China, Japan, and Korea with the Middle East and Africa.
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar all have coastlines on the Bay of Bengal, which is the world’s biggest bay and is located between India and Indonesia. China, Japan, India, the United States, and even Russia have all sent representatives to the area because of its political, economic, and security significance.
This’state-of-the-art’ submarine station was built with assistance from China under an agreement struck in September of this year (2019). The submarine base has enough docking space for eight ships, including six submarines. The existence of Chinese-made submarines in the Bay of Bengal makes it, for India’s purposes, a highly congested sea body in terms of underwater activity. Furthermore, it provides the Chinese presence with a degree of legitimacy. It makes India’s underwater situation more complicated.
New Delhi and Dhaka have had deep historical and cultural links for a long time. After Bangladesh’s independence in December 1971, India was the first nation to recognize it as an independent state and to establish diplomatic ties with it.
But things have changed since Chinese President Xi Jinping made history by visiting Bangladesh. Submarines of the Type-035G Ming-class were later acquired by Bangladesh after the visit. These submarines, which were purchased by the Bangladesh Navy for US$203 million and given the names BNS Nabajatra and Joyjatra, are exemplary examples of the Ming-class design.
The Bangladesh Navy’s submarines pose no danger to India’s regional dominance, but two Chinese submarines recently visited Bangladesh, accompanied by Chinese officials who provided training and familiarization for the Bangladesh Navy’s personnel.
Other Chinese military hardware that Bangladesh has acquired includes 44 Main Battle Tank-2000s, two regiments’ worth of FM-90 short-range surface-to-air missiles, QW-2 and FN-6 hand-held anti-aircraft missiles, PF-98 anti-tank rockets, and 36 units’ worth of WS-22 multiple rocket launcher systems. The Bangladesh Air Force has bought 32 aircraft, 16 Yak-130 light attack and training planes built in Russia and 16 F-7BG light attack fighter planes made in China.
India has bolstered its military connections with Bangladesh in addition to improving transportation links through rail and interior waterways. India and Bangladesh are discussing the possibility of keeping the Mi-17 1V helicopter, Antonov An-32 transport aircraft, and MiG-29 fighter planes in the Bangladesh air force. India has its own aircraft operations and repair facilities, and it has been using both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.
“India has operationalized a US$500 million line of credit to Bangladesh, and it will be used for defense purchases,” says an official with knowledge of the situation.
Air Chief Marshal Masihuzzaman Serniabat, the former head of the Bangladesh Air Force, flew in an LCA Tejas fighter plane during Def Expo 2021, and he was quite pleased by it. However, with Air Chief Marshal Serniabat’s retirement and the global economic slump due to the pandemic, India’s ambitions of selling Tejas were crushed. Now, reports from inside the Bangladeshi military suggest that no agreement will be made until after the national elections scheduled for next year.
The Eurofighter Typhoon or the French Rafale are the European fighter jets that Bangladesh is most likely to purchase. The Bangladeshi official told EurAsian Times that nothing is set in stone till the next elections.
The Sri Lankan Joust
Ranil Wickremesinghe, president of Sri Lanka from 2022, made his first official trip to India in July 2023. A number of agreements pertaining to marine, aviation, energy, and power cooperation were inked during the visit, which was done at the request of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Colombo on the western coast, Trincomalee on the eastern coast, and Kankesanthurai on the northernmost point of the island country facing the Palk Strait will all be developed by India. INS Khanjar, a Missile Corvette of the Khukri class, was on display at Trincomalee, Sri Lanka’s eastern port, to introduce the Indian Navy to the locals.
Although Trincomalee has one of the world’s biggest natural ports, it is not equipped to handle the world’s largest ships. By expanding the port, Delhi would have “something outside India but within the triangle.”
In addition, discussions are underway between Delhi and Colombo over a number of potential cooperative projects, one of which is the construction of an integrated energy system that would link the island nation to the rest of South Asia, including the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal) is a regional effort that came into being when India’s difficult relationship with Pakistan rendered the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) moot.
In addition, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has begun discussions with Colombo officials about constructing a pipeline to transport oil between Nagapattinam, Colombo, and the strategic city of Trincomalee on the east coast of Sri Lanka, where India is assisting in the restoration of oil tanks from World War II. It has also been proposed to build a pipeline to transport petroleum from southern India to Sri Lanka. It has been a crucial source of power for the island country.
Sri Lanka urged China to modify its loan to the government in 2022, when the island nation was experiencing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948. However, it heard nothing from the nation. While Sri Lanka was struggling under the weight of over US$83 billion in total debt, of which US$41.5 billion was foreign debt, India sent vital financial help and supplies worth over US$4 billion, including food, medicine, and fuel. About 10% of Sri Lanka’s external debt is held by Chinese investors.
The Indian Monetary financial (IMF) financial facility granted to Sri Lanka in 2023 requires a 10-year loan moratorium and a 15-year debt restructure period. However, China only offered a two-year debt moratorium and a 99-year lease on the port of Hambantota in exchange for the island nation’s cooperation.
Sri Lanka is a key ally for both China and India due to its position in the Indian Ocean. While Pakistan is trying to expand its sphere of influence in the region, India is working to protect its own turf.
According to the South China Morning Post, Sri Lankan political and energy expert Aruna Kulatunga said that India considers Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to be “de facto satellite states of China because they have leased out land to China.”
According to the Sri Lankan expert, these three nations make up a veritable “triangle of death.” “For (India), it is like strangulation,” he said, adding that New Delhi should invest more in safeguarding strategic waterways.