Submarines in Indian Ocean no threat to India, says PLA

Amid India’s concerns on deployment of Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean, a top People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval officer sought to justify the move saying the vessels were part of anti-piracy operations while downplaying the ‘string of pearls’ theory to contain India.

“Why cannot submarines participate in anti-piracy operations? Submarines also participate in anti-piracy operations along with other fleets,” Wei <g data-gr-id="26">Xiandong</g>, Chief of Staff, Shanghai Naval Garrison, said.

He was asked why PLA Navy sends submarines for anti-piracy operations when aircraft or surface warships are needed for such kind of operations.

Interacting with a delegation of Indian journalists at the garrison here, Wei said that different vessels have different roles in such operations and in future, navies of both China and India will extend more cooperation and visit and carry out maritime search and rescue and demonstrate a much closer relationship between the two countries. 

Downplaying the ‘string of pearls’ theory to encircle India, he said that there should be no worry or concern as China’s defence policy was defensive in nature.

“No need to worry. There should be no concern about it <g data-gr-id="29">because</g> for China, defence policy is defensive in nature. We don’t want to play a big power just to threaten other region or country,” he said.

The String of Pearls is a geopolitical theory regarding potential Chinese intentions in the Indian Ocean region. It refers to the network of Chinese military and commercial facilities along its sea lines of communication around strategic maritime centres in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Somalia.