Strategic Importance of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI)

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) are two groups of islands: the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, covering an area of 8,249 square kilometres. The entire island chain consists of 836 islands, including islets and rocky outcrops, of which about 31 are permanently inhabited. The islands are governed as a single Union Territory by the Central Government of India through the Andaman and Nicobar Administration.

Why Are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Important to India?

• Strategic Military Presence: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) are home to India’s only integrated tri-service command of the armed forces—the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC). This command is crucial for maritime surveillance and enhancing India’s strategic presence in the eastern Indian Ocean.
• Economic Resources: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands significantly extend India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The EEZ is an area extending up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state, within which the state has special rights to explore and exploit marine resources, including fish, oil, and gas.
• Countering Chinese Presence: China’s efforts to expand its footprint in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to overcome its ‘Malacca Dilemma’ (China’s fear of a maritime blockade at the Straits of Malacca) and fulfil its ‘Maritime Silk Road’ ambitions have fueled apprehensions about freedom of navigation in these waters. By gaining ground at critical chokepoints, China could use them to its benefit during any future conflict or standoff with India.
• Sea Denial Warfare: The ANI’s strategic location allows India to pursue a sea denial warfare strategy (denying the adversary the use of the near sea) to dictate terms in the littoral space.
• Net Security Provider: India can leverage these islands to protect its interests and enhance its image as the ‘net security provider’ in the region. The significance of India’s role as a security provider is exemplified by its intervention during the 1988 Maldives coup attempt.
• Connection with Southeast Asia: Covering about 30 percent of India’s EEZ, the ANI connects South Asia with Southeast Asia. The northernmost point of this archipelago is merely 22 nautical miles from Myanmar, and the southernmost point, Indira Point, is only 90 nautical miles from Indonesia.
• Important Fulcrum of Indo-Pacific: The ANI are at the intersection of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, extending to the Pacific Ocean, making them a crucial fulcrum in the strategic concept of the Indo-Pacific. India’s increasing importance in the Indo-Pacific region is reciprocated by the US.

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Challenges in Andaman and Nicobar Islands Strategic Development

• Inadequate Attention to Strategic Importance: Some sections of India’s foreign policy community argue against turning the islands into a strategic-military hub, fearing it may not align well with Southeast Asian countries, who perceive India as a benevolent and benign power.
• Slow Pace of Development: Internet connectivity, even at the naval base in the capital Port Blair, is reported to be erratic. Road building, airstrip construction, and the building of jetties have been slow or non-existent.
• Other Challenges:
  • The absence of a human presence on many of these islands makes them vulnerable to narcotics smuggling, intrusion by foreign vessels, and other incursions.
  • Heavy rainfall restricts building activity to six months a year, and the distance from the mainland adds to construction costs as all materials must be shipped to the islands.
  • Few companies are willing to work on the islands due to distance and cost. For some materials, importing from Indonesia would be cheaper and more cost-effective than shipping from the Indian mainland. 

Steps taken by the government

• Maritime Exercises: The ANC conducts joint maritime exercises such as the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise and Coordinated Patrols with Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia. It also conducts MILAN, a biennial multilateral naval exercise, to build friendships across the seas. Twenty countries participated in the 2018 MILAN edition, making it the largest naval exercise in the Andaman Sea.
• Expanding Naval Presence: Following the Ladakh standoff with China in May 2020, India is expediting plans to station additional forces, warships, aircraft, and missile batteries in the ANI. There have also been reports of naval air stations INS BAAZ and INS KOHASSA expanding their support operations.
• Others: The Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar undersea internet cable was inaugurated to provide high-speed internet to seven remote islands in the ANI chain—Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat. The commander-in-chief of the ANC has been empowered to requisition military assets from the three services, handle land acquisition cases, and has been granted additional financial powers.

Way Ahead

• Encouraging Migration: There is a need to consider encouraging migration from the mainland and opening up some of the strategically located uninhabited islands to tourism. This would provide India with a stronger physical footprint and help the country track the movement of vessels and people.
• Strategic Infrastructure: To emphasise its regional pre-eminence, the Indian Navy has recently increased the tempo of naval operations in the Bay of Bengal. Reinforcing strategic infrastructure on the islands is a way of highlighting India’s combat prowess.
• Cooperation with Strategic Partners: Port visits by countries such as the US, Japan, Australia, France, or the UK could lead to further graded cooperation in all dimensions between India and its key strategic partners in the ANI.
• Engagement with ASEAN: There is an opportunity to integrate the ANI into the “Act East Policy” of engaging with countries in the region east of India.

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