By the time the elite commando force departed for so-called “sanitation” operations, the pirates had fled – but the footage was widely shared by the Navy as evidence of their “rapid response” capabilities.
Bhaskar, who is a retired naval officer, said it showed that India could “establish a credible naval presence in the Indian Ocean region at short notice if required”.
Beijing and New Delhi are competing for influence in the Indian Ocean, and India has previously deployed patrols in the disputed South China Sea and western Pacific.
Gill said India has expanded its military presence in the Arabian Sea at a time when rival Asian power China is more cautious in its response out of concern not to spoil its recently developing ties with the Arab world. .
Former Navy spokesman DK Sharma insisted that the deployment was only aimed at “miscreants seeking to take advantage of the Israel-Hamas war” by attacking shipping.
Sharma said, “India believes in maintaining peace in the global community.” “We have no ambition to say that the Indian Ocean is India’s ocean.”
But he was also confident that Beijing had “noted” India’s quick response which forced the pirates to “run like rats”.
“China can look at it as it wants,” he said.