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Indian Military Bases At INS Baaz, CAR Nicobar See Renewed Infra Push As QUAD Nations Look To Counter ‘Hostile’ China

With China’s unprecedented rise and belligerence, global geostrategic action has begun to shift from the South China Sea (SCS) to the larger Indo-Pacific region.

The US already has a huge air asset presence at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, is the largest U.S. military installation in the Asia-Pacific region and the largest wing in the US Air Force (USAF).

Both are Island territories. On 18 March 2016, the United States and the Philippines signed a deal to allow US forces to use five bases in the country, including Antonio Bautista Air Base, to counter Chinese deployments in the Spratly Islands.

However, there are other Island airfields in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) that can greatly impact operations in SCS and north-eastern IOR. These are Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory), Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australian external territory), INS Baaz at Campbell Bay, and the IAF airbase at Car Nicobar (Great Nicobar, India).

While Diego Garcia is a well-established US/UK joint military base housing US bomber aircraft, the others are strategic locations with runways and have great potential for becoming major military airbases. These airbases are territories of QUAD nations which are working to contain China’s aggressive designs. It is thus interesting to steady them.

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Diego Garcia Military Base Evolves

Archipelago: Chagos Archipelago

Diego Garcia is located in the northern half of the Indian Ocean, around 7 degrees south of the Equator, south of Maldives. The Island has an area of 30 sq. km. It is administered by the United Kingdom but claimed by Mauritius.

Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century. Diego Garcia became a colony of the UK after the Napoleonic Wars as part of the Treaty of Paris (1814), and from 1814 to 1965, it was administered from Mauritius. It is often referred to as “Fantasy Island” for its seclusion.

In 1942, the British opened RAF Station Diego Garcia and established an advanced flying boat unit. During World War II, both Catalina and Sunderland aircraft were flown in search of Japanese and German submarines and surface raiders.

It was one of the “Dependencies” of the British Colony of Mauritius until the Chagos Islands were detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965. In April 1967, the BIOT Administration bought out Chagos-Agalega for £600,000, thus becoming the sole property owner in the BIOT. The total population today is a little over 4,000. Diego Garcia is a fully militarised atoll and the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago.

In the early 1960s, when the UK was withdrawing its military presence from the Indian Ocean, the United States requested an unpopulated island, and ultimately, Diego Garcia was found suitable.

Between 1968 and 1973, the Chagossian inhabitants were forcibly expelled from Diego Garcia by the UK Government so that a joint US/UK military base could be established. The United States built the large Naval Support Facility, which has been in continuous operation since then.

In 2019, the continued British administration of the archipelago was deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a ruling the United Nations General Assembly supported. However, the British dismissed this ruling as not legally binding.

In June 2020, a Mauritian official offered to allow the United States to retain its military base on the island as long as Mauritius was given sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago.

US-UK Agreement

On 30 December 1966, the United States and the UK executed an agreement that permitted the United States to use the BIOT for defense purposes for 50 years until December 2016, followed by a 20-year extension (to 2036). No monetary payment was made.

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