Indo-Pacific is the Global Centre of Gravity: Admiral Sunil Lanba

December 17, 2019

New Delhi: The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) organised the 10th Y.B. Chavan Memorial Lecture by Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM (Retd.), Chairman, National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi, and former Chief of the Naval Staff, on December 17, 2019. Admiral Lanba spoke on ‘India’s Security Interests in the Indo-Pacific’.

In his Welcome Address, Director General, IDSA, Amb. Sujan R. Chinoy highlighted the role played by Shri Y. B. Chavan in shaping and guiding India’s defence and security requirements during a critical part of India’s history.

Elaborating upon the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, which are primarily seen through the maritime lens, Amb. Chinoy pointed out the other security threats throughout the region, including territorial disputes, piracy, terrorism, or proliferation. He added that Infrastructure and connectivity were also fast emerging as areas of both cooperation and contestation.

Suggesting that accretion in India’s naval budget and naval force projection will remain key to the future of India’s security interests in the Indo-Pacific, Amb. Chinoy said that India is undergoing major changes through landmark reforms and it is inevitable that India too will rise as the century unfolds.

Delivering the annual lecture Admiral Lanba, while describing the Indo-Pacific as the ‘Global Centre of Gravity, stressed upon the rise in the geo-political significance and maritime security challenges in the region. The region’s critical role as a prime engine of global economic progress makes it a strategically highly important agenda of the regional, as well as the global powers, pointed out Admiral Lanba.

The geo-political eminence of the Indo-Pacific region is here to stay. In the foreseeable future maritime construct of the region would continue to shape the global economic and security paradigm, he observed.

Admiral Lanba outlined the ongoing global power transitions, continuing resource struggle and climate change as the drivers that fuel the global future narrative.

Also present on the occasion was the representative of Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, Mumbai, Shri Ajit Nimbalkar, who spoke of Shri Y.B. Chavan’s contributions not only in Maharashtra, but also on the national front. Hailing Shri Chavan as the ‘Founder of Modern Maharashtra’ Shri Nimbalkar spoke of his journey from a small village in Maharashtra to becoming the Indian Minister of Defence during the 1965 War.

The Y.B. Chavan Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture organised by IDSA in collaboration with the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, Mumbai, since 2010.