IT seems that the Indian media has gone mad trying to sabotage the strategic importance of AMAN 2025 by disseminating false, fake, fabricated propaganda against Pak-China naval cooperation terming it “deciphering” the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which is completely fallacious. AMAN 2025 will be the ninth edition of the exercise since its inception in 2007. In AMAN-25, over 50 countries are expected to participate, underscoring Pakistan’s desire to showcase its strategic partnerships and foster multilateral cooperation.
Despite a series of anti-AMAN 2025 articles, commentaries and features writings, it stands for sustainable maritime security, development of blue economy, greater regional sea cooperation, improving interoperability, building of mutual corridors of knowledge, understanding, trust, cooperation, collaboration and last but not the least, exhibiting united resolve against terrorism and organized crimes in the maritime domain. Thus the Indian propaganda campaign has no substance but dark shadows of its own political hype and self-claimed hegemonic designs in the IOR.
It is a good omen that Pakistan and China have been enjoying high level, pragmatic naval cooperation in terms of joint exercises and training operations such as the Sea Guardian series bilateral exercises and AMAN series multinational exercises, carrying out cooperation in naval equipment such projects involving Type 054A/P guided missile frigates and Hangor-class submarines. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has participated in all previous editions of AMAN exercises and the PLA Navy is also going to participate in AMAN-2025. Moreover, the PLA Navy flotilla’s participation in the AMAN exercises will further promote the PLA Navy’s maritime exchanges and cooperation with other participating navies, showing the determination to jointly safeguard maritime security and boosted the capability in jointly dealing with maritime security threats.
Obviously, Pakistan Navy-PLA Navy relations are a vivid reflection of Pakistan-China strategic ties, including participation in bilateral and multilateral exercises. In this regard, the Sea Guardian series of exercises fostering interoperability and sharing professional experiences to deal with contemporary traditional and non-traditional threats in the Indian Ocean region. For the further strengthening of naval cooperation all four Type 054A/P frigates built by China have been delivered to the Pakistan Navy. In May 2023, two Type 054A/P frigates built by China for the Pakistan Navy were delivered, marking that all four Type 054A/Ps ordered by the Pakistan Navy have been commissioned. It is one of the latest multi-role frigates of Chinese origin, equipped with the state-of-the-art weapons and sensors that include CM-302 surface-to-surface missiles and LY-80 surface-to-air missiles, as well as an Advanced Anti-Submarine Warfare suite and Combat Management System, enabling ships of this class to operate under multi-threat scenarios. Thus its acquisition is a symbol of enduring friendship and historical affinity between Pakistan and China bolstering national war fighting capabilities, enhancing operational flexibility. Furthermore, the joint construction of eight Hangor-class submarines has further strengthened Pak-China naval cooperation. It is equipped with the latest weapons and sensors having an air independent propulsion (AIP) system onboard, the submarine has significantly enhanced submerged endurance capabilities.
It is encouraging that both navies enjoy a historically strong deep-rooted bilateral relationship through close collaboration across multiple domains including acquisition of platforms, equipment, bilateral exercises, technical cooperation, Navy-to-Navy (N2N) Expert Level Staff Talks, training collaboration, exchange visits and port calls. China and Pakistan also regularly hold the Sea Guardian bilateral naval drills. The China-Pakistan Sea Guardian-3 maritime joint exercise was held in the waters and airspace of the northern Arabian Sea from November 11 to 17, 2023. In 2020 and 2022, the two countries held the Sea Guardian 2020 and Sea Guardian-2 joint exercises in northern Arabian Sea waters and waters and airspace near Shanghai respectively. The Sea Guardian joint exercises aim to enhance security cooperation between the two sides, consolidate all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and boost the level of combat-oriented training of the two militries. It seems that the future prospects between the both navies are very bright, looking forward to establishing long term collaboration in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics warfare, cyber security and space. A series of articles of retired Indian armed forces, especially navy termed China’s involvement in AMAN-25 as an effort to project power in the region and solidify its maritime influence, directly impacting India’s security calculus which is absolutely deceptive. Unfortunately, these “dwarfs” are also polluting the strategic importance of China’s BRI, CPEC and directly hitting Gwadar seaport.
AMAN 2025 has nothing to do with so-called encircling India in the IOR. Pakistan Navy has a long history of peace and conflict resolution through dialogue, diplomacy and development. It never showed any intentions to start an arms race in the IOR. However, the PN has the legitimate right to safeguard its vested interests in terms of maritime security, expansion of the blue economy, CPEC, Gwadar seaport and, importantly, successfully combating with sea terrorists. In summary, AMNA 2025 has become an effective tool for Pakistan Navy diplomacy expanding its role, participation and utility in the IOR protecting its waters, seas and oceans. Pakistan has its own maritime security priorities which should not be dubbed as challenging or potential threats to any regional country and its naval cooperation with China is peaceful and development oriented. Indian navy manoeuvring in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Oman, Iran and Asia Pacific has serious spillover ramifications which needs to be monitored, controlled and effectively checked. Furthermore, Indian alliances such as the Quad (India, the US, Japan, and Australia) should be labelled as a proxy in deep sea Asia Pacific encircling China in the South China Sea in the days to come.
AMAN-25 serves as a platform for Pakistan to demonstrate its growing alignment with China. The exercise underscores the Pakistan-China nexus in countering terrorism and jointly working for regional peace, stability and trans-regional connectivity and, notably, development of the blue economy. It is high time that Pakistan should accelerate its own naval modernization program and strengthen its position in the IOR and further strengthen its naval cooperation with China and Türkiye. The author suggests that close naval cooperation between Pakistan and China is necessary for maintaining sustained maritime security in the IOR through further modernization, joint ventures in nuclear submarines, new-generation frigates, anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) production, acquisition of laser technology, joint ventures in shipbuilding, drone system, unnamed small submarines, cutting-edge software and artificial intelligence.
—The writer is President, Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge, Executive Director, CSAIS, regional expert: China, CPEC & BRI.
(mehmoodulhassankhan@yahoo.com)
