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The Great Nicobar Island is part of an archipelago that lies deep in the Indian Ocean. It's governed by India but is so distant that it takes a flight from the mainland and a 30-hour ferry ride to arrive. The upcoming Great Nicobar Project is set to transform this sleepy island into a bustling township over the next three decades. Once complete, the island will have a civilian and military airport, a transshipment port that caters to container ships, a power plant and a new town equipped to host a million tourists a year... In a press release in May,...

With American warships tightening a naval blockade off Iran and global attention fixed on the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon this week quietly executed a significant move in the Indo-Pacific, announcing a Major Defense Cooperation Partnership with Indonesia that underscores its and the Trump administration's focus on counterbalancing future Chinese aggression. The partnership will elevate bilateral military ties between the two countries in the Strait of Malacca as American forces enforce a naval blockade in the Persian Gulf. When asked about the deal’s impact on the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, a Department of War official told RedState the agreement...

In the murky waters of the Strait of Malacca, about 90 miles south of Phuket, Thailand, four divers discovered a World War II submarine that was scuttled 77 years ago, now teeming with marine life. The wreckage, believed to be the USS Grenadier, was located last October by divers Jean Luc Rivoire, Lance Horowitz, Benoit Laborie and Ben Reymenants, the team announced this month. Over the subsequent six months, the men — one of whom, Reymenants, assisted in the 2018 rescue of the boys’ soccer team that was trapped in a cave in northern Thailand — completed six carefully planned...

India has recently renewed its attention to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, which occupy a key location in West-East maritime trade, with a series of infrastructure, economic, and defense projects that experts say will help India and its Indo-Pacific allies.The country is upgrading two airstrips on the islands into full-fledged fighter aircraft bases, according to Aug. 25 media reports, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun other development projects in the past few weeks.“The Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide critical access and key entry and exit points for the Indian Ocean. They oversee the Strait...

"Sir, you have done India proud." That was how the anchorman of a television channel in Delhi addressed the Indian navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, on the victorious sea battle by warship INS Tabar with would-be hijackers as dusk was falling on Tuesday evening in the Gulf of Aden. Those words would have made Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century British navigator and slaver-politician of the Elizabethan era, truly envious. Sir Francis had bigger claims to fame in a life cut short by dysentery while attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1595. Unsurprisingly, the patriotic Indian media dutifully expressed its gratitude...

KUALA LUMPUR - Foreign powers must not dictate how Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia protect the Strait of Malacca shipping lanes from threats of piracy and terrorism, Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday. 'The Strait of Malacca is ours to protect and preserve,' said Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Defence Minister, at a conference on improving security in the pirate-infested waters. 'There are those who forget that the countries bordering the Strait of Malacca - each of them sovereign nations in their own right - have the ultimate say over the protection and preservation of the strait,' he said....

Chinese academics are suggesting that an oil pipeline should be constructed from Burma to China in order to reduce the country's dependence on oil imports shipped through the Strait of Malacca. "Most of China's oil imports come from the Middle East and Africa. Given the current situation in the Malacca Strait, we feel that we should come up with a suitable alternative," Professor Li Chengyang, a co-author of the proposal noted. One of the problems is that southeastern Asia is home to the world's most pirate-infested waters, with 79 attacks in the first quarter of this year, according to the...

Strait: Target for terror By Ioannis Gatsiounis KUALA LUMPUR - While it benefits some parties to talk up the threat of terror - whether to gain a contract or a foothold in a foreign land - the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian governments, burdened with monitoring the world's busiest strait, would like nothing more than to prove to the world that everything's under control. Indeed, with 600 vessels and 11 million barrels of oil passing through the Malacca Strait each day, everything has to be under control. So it followed that on July 20, in conjunction with the three countries'...