With India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya expected to resume sailing and fighter operations after major refit by mid-December, the Indian Navy is actively considering leasing a jetty at a private port north of Chennai to berth an aircraft carrier as it plans to deploy one of the two aircraft carriers on eastern seaboard.

Today, French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu will be going on board India’s newly commissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the coast of Kochi as the Modi government moves towards finalising the contract of 26 maritime fighter jets for the indigenous aircraft carrier. Dassault manufactured Rafale-M is one of the contenders for the contract with Boeing manufactured F-18 fighter the other candidate.

In the meantime, China has pushed its Indian Ocean agenda by holding a virtual meeting of 19 countries and three organizations at Kunming on November 21 in Yunnan province albeit the level of participation is not known. It is understood that Beijing has come up with China Industrial Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCO) to rival USAID ostensibly to develop Indian Ocean region littoral states. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his last trip to Sri Lanka had talked about building a forum to develop Indian Ocean islands. It is another matter that countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives and Myanmar already reeling under Chinese high interest debt for Belt Road Initiative infra projects will be interested in taking…