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The road to good neighbourliness

A few years after Independence, a Pakistani naval ship on her way to Karachi, broke down off Bombay. Her call for assistance was promptly answered by the Indian Navy and the vessel was towed into harbour. The Navy had no problem repairing the ship as the naval dockyard had refitted the ship many times before Independence. She was soon set right and sent on her way to Karachi. The assistance rendered was much appreciated by our neighbour. This, mind you, after we had fought the first of our three wars with that country.

Those days have long passed. Today if a ship happens to break down outside the other's harbour, it would be arrested a la Pueblo and the crew incarcerated in jail as spies.

For nearly 15 years after Independence the two navies met annually for Joint Exercises at Trincomalee (JET). These were sponsored by the Royal Navy who were still around with their East Indies fleet based at Trincomalee. The four-week joint exercise period included units from most of the Commonwealth navies. Ships of the Indian and Pakistan navies quite willingly served under each other's commands in antisubmarine, convoy and replenishment exercises. Once in harbour, there was much bonhomie and officers visited each others' ships. Will those days ever return? Not in the near future.

Today the relations between the two neighbours, India and Pakistan, have reached rock bottom. The two are not even talking to each other. The rise of rabid fundamentalism in Pakistan and equally rabid Hindu bigotry in India has made even a semblance of dialogue impossible. Nuclear explosions by both countries, increased militancy in Kashmir, the Kargil episode followed by the usual bout of patriotism and the military coup in Pakistan has raised jingoism and rhetoric to such a pitch that both countries appear closer to war than peace. Incidents such as the shooting down of the Pakistani Atlantique, irrespective of who was in the right, have further fuelled the antipathy.

The military too has been a victim of this political and religious one-upmanship. There is little contact between the services on either side. During the past 50 years, the Indian naval chief has officially visited countries from Russia to Argentina and from South Korea to Australia. Naval ships have also visited many countries. Even the country described by one former chief of army staff as a 'bandicoot' and by our present defence minister as our greatest threat -- China -- has been visited by naval ships.

Yet, no chief has ever visited Pakistan and vice versa. Apart from that one ship, no Pakistani naval ship has ever berthed in an Indian port and vice versa. The Indian Navy will be holding an International Fleet Review next year where more than 20 foreign naval ships are expected to take their places in the review lines. The Pakistan Navy is not even invited.

The two neighbours appear to be happy nursing their bruised egos and feeding on their pride. And yet, there is so much to be gained in mutual rapprochement, certainly in the maritime area. Here are a few areas where cooperation rather than confrontation will be mutually beneficial to each country.

Human life and its safety knows no political or religious boundaries. Joint efforts to save human lives could be one area where cooperation is possible between the countries. If a ship gets stranded at sea, would it not be possible for either side to first launch an aerial search to locate the ship and then send a rescue vessel to render humanitarian assistance to the crew? Surely, an agreement to put into effect a joint search and rescue organisation to save human lives could easily be worked out? Or will we forever sulk like immature children and gloat over our neighbour's misery when he is confronted with a disaster?

Anti-smuggling, anti-piracy, and anti-pollution measures offer another area of cooperation. Once again, these are crimes against humanity and there need not be any national, political or religious barriers when one is combating them. Smuggling or pollution can affect both countries equally. A major oil spill in Arabian Sea close to the coast is likely to be equally disastrous to both countries and combating the disaster jointly is likely to be far more effective. Apart from the social consequences, drug smuggling affects the economy of each country and jointmanship here will yield spectacular results.

The recent accident to the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk shows a third area of cooperation. Both India and Pakistan, indeed many other countries in the Indian Ocean, operate submarines. Yet, today neither has a viable or up-to-date rescue system should, unfortunately, a disaster strike. Operating submarines is an expensive business. Not only is the submarine itself an expensive vessel, it also requires sophisticated infrastructure. Not many countries can afford to maintain highly efficient and modern rescue systems.

Neither is a private rescue system necessary. Many people own cars. Very few have their personal garages and repair organisations. A collective system for submarine rescue is one area of cooperation between the two neighbours and may even be extended to other nations operating submarines in the neighbourhood like Indonesia and Iran. These, of course, would be small beginnings in what could eventually be a whole spectrum of cooperation and building of trust between the two countries.

Impossible as they may seem in today's vitiated atmosphere, any cooperation along these lines would only mark the first step along the long uphill climb towards even more sensible understandings. The possibilities are limitless, even within the narrow naval or military arena. Once mutual confidence and trust is established, the next logical step would be first the curtailment and eventually a mutual reduction of conventional arms on both sides. Outlandish as this proposal may look at present, it is not such a impossibility once saner minds prevail on both sides.

Take naval forces for example. Both sides have in their inventory surface ships and submarines which are nearly 30 years old. By no sense of imagination can these be considered of any operational or even training value. They just make up the numbers quoted in the Janes' publications as well as the Military Balance. A large number of them are ready for the scrap yard. They eat up unnecessary resources of men and material without being of any use to man or beast. Why not make a virtue of necessity? Eventually both sides could decide to scrap this worthless lot and agree not to replace them. That could be the first step in mutual arms reduction.

The ultimate and the most serious goal of each side could be some sort of understanding regarding nuclear weapons. Today both countries are bent on going along a path followed by the Cold War countries in the sixties and seventies; carrying nuclear weapons to sea where they will be immune from first strike. Nuclear hawks in each country will only be satisfied when submarines with nuclear tipped missiles patrol off each other's harbours. It will be done at mind boggling costs and is stated to be the ultimate deterrent.

Even at the height of the Cold War better sense prevailed between the two warriors. The United States and the Soviet Union decided to sit down and work out some form of arms limitation. It was a long grind but ultimately an agreement was reached.

History has shown us the truth in the oft quoted statement of Lord Palmerston that there are no permanent friends or enemies, there are only permanent interests. Britain and France, the bitterest of enemies during the Napoleonic wars, are today the staunchest of trade partners. So too are Britain and Germany, the United States and Japan, to quote just some of the notable examples. Even after the magnitude of destruction major wars have caused, these countries have resolved their differences and in so doing, rebuilt their economies.

India and Pakistan find themselves in a similar situation. Yet, today there is a far greater threat -- that of nuclear weapons. Both countries have nuclear weapons in their arsenal and have shown the willingness to use them if provoked. Who can say what will be the threshold of this provocation? If the first steps towards cooperation and understanding are not taken today, we can be certain that 20 years down the line the populations of Bombay and Karachi will forever live under the perpetual threat of a nuclear wipe-out.

Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd)