Air Chief Marshal terms Chinese activity in CocoIsland as baseless

Port Blair, Mar 11(UNI) Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi today emphatically described all recent reports of Chinese activities in Coco Island to monitor the movement of Indian naval ship as ''baseless''.

''We describe all such reports of China constructing a listening post and airstrip in Coco Island as baseless,'' said S P Tyagi while addressing a news conference in Port Blair, the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands here.

However, if Director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of US Congress Yossef Bodansky as well as the World Terrorism Analyst with the Freeman Centre for Strategic Studies (Houston TX) were to be believed, China has installed a major maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station on Great Coco Island.

Along with the Small Coco Island, where the Chinese Army is also building bases, these two islands, situated in the Alexandra Channel between the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea, provide a great opportunity to China to be based at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca.

Coco islands, which have been leased to China since 1994, are located at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca.

''The Coco Islands, an ideal place for monitoring the major Indian naval facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, monitors missile launches in the Chandipur of Balasore in Orissa and the satellites' launching at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Overall, it also facilitates China in monitoring movements of the Indian Navy and other friendly navies throughout the eastern basin of the Indian Ocean, as well the overall western approaches to the Strait of Malacca, Bodansky report said according to information published by www.bharat-rakshak.com, a consortium of Indian military website.

It is worth recalling here that in May 1998, former Defence Minister George Fernandes had publicly mentioned that Beijing was helping Myanmar to install surveillance and communication equipment on the Coco Islands. Fernandes argued that Chinese defence strategy was working to encircle India.

S P Tyagi, who is also the Chairman Chief of Staff Committee, is presently on his farewell visit to Andaman&Nicobar Command, situated in Andaman and Nicobar Islands accompanied by his wife Mrs Vandana Tyagi.

The Air Chief Marshall said the Andaman and Nicobar region was strategically very important because focus was slowly shifting from North and North West India to South East India.

''Our relation with neighbouring countries are improving as the focus is shifting from geo-political to geo-economic with India at the threshold of becoming economic superpower,'' Mr Tyagi told mediapersons in Port Blair.

UNI