Rear Admiral MD Suresh (Retd.) discusses the India-Pakistan naval collision in the North Arabian Sea, examining maritime safety rules, possible motivations and the evidence likely to be reviewed. India has lodged a diplomatic protest over the incident, while Pakistan has issued a counter-protest disputing India's account.

Rear Admiral MD Suresh (Retd.) discusses the recent India-Pakistan naval collision and the maritime procedures governing such encounters | AI Generated Image (X – @Moochikal)

Rear Admiral MD Suresh (Retd.) speaks to Ashwin Ahmad about the recent incident of a Pakistani naval ship crashing into an Indian one. In the interview, Rear Admiral Suresh explains the motivations of the attack, whether the attack violates international maritime law, and whether the situation is likely to escalate.

A Pakistani Naval vessel had carried out aggressive manoeuvres against Indian naval ships six months ago, and now they have actually hit an Indian vessel. Why? What is motivating them?

Pakistan Navy officials are seething from the information warfare campaign as well as the actual situation that happened during Operation Sindoor on the ground. They think they are relatively better armed than they were even during Kargil, so they are angry that they were not given the opportunity to fight. So when they get such an opportunity in the open ocean and there's nobody monitoring them, they took their chance.

There is another point to note here. In regard to the hierarchy, the Pakistan surface navy is the weakest. The submarines are pretty strong, the naval aviation is not too bad, but the surface navy is like the infantry; they get kicked around. And therefore, the hot-bloodedness that happens on the bridge is because they are actually pitching themselves from a very inferior position. And the moment they see an Indian warship, it gets even worse.

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Does international maritime law apply here? What is the procedure?

Maritime law is less relevant here. It's more of something called the rules of the road. Rules of the road determine how two ships will manoeuver to keep safe, and safety of the ship is a priority of all ships at sea. Nobody wants to get involved in a collision, grounding, and so on. So, there are very strict rules by which ships are supposed to be manoeuvred. Now, this ship’s commander has infringed on every rule of the road. Forget about the signatures that we've had on multiple memorandums of understanding and so on. Basic rules of the road require that no two ships will close each other to less than two miles under good visibility conditions and less than five miles under bad or poor visibility conditions, provided there's enough sea room. But if you’re in a narrow sea room, then you will or should manoeuver more carefully.

What makes you think this was a deliberate act by the Pakistani Navy?

I don’t know the details, and the Navy will keep it quiet, but judging by the name of the Pakistani ship, it is a small vessel and therefore commanded by a relatively junior fellow. With the Indian ship, we don’t know which class of ship, and therefore we don't know the relative seniority of the captain of the Indian ship. Yes. But since the Pakistani ship’s name has been declared, we know that it’s either a senior lieutenant commander or a junior commander. With regard to India, the Western Fleet, which is deployed in that area, are all commanded by relatively senior people, who control the situation far more strongly than the Pakistan Navy does.

Is the situation likely to escalate?

No, this will be a one-off incident. These incidents keep happening. Even in the air, you have a situation where opposing sides come and take position, and they try and get you away. These things happen, but they shouldn't land up in a situation where you touch each other. That crosses the line of acceptable behaviour. This will certainly call for some noise from the diplomatic side, and the Navy on its side will try and calm things down because there will be anger from our side. If damage has been caused then it will be even more serious because the next time somebody comes, our own chaps might up the ante simply because we don't want to be seen as if we’ve taken a knock from them.

As you said, we don’t know the details, but do you think there might have been serious injuries?

If there has been a 90-degree collision, then the situation is serious, as that means his head has hit the centre of my ship. But I don’t think that has been the case, as the MEA statement was fairly mild. So, I think it is quite a repeat of what must have happened during the Godavari time. (Pakistan’s PNS Babur hit the Indian INS Godavari 15 years ago.) So, it must be a glancing blow, some guardrails gone, so we just take it and move on.

What would be the next step?

These days, with piracy, switching on a camera to record any developing situation is necessary. It's an SOP. So, I'm quite certain both sides would have video recordings of what is happening, and the bridges, which is where they steer the ship from, would also have switched on their recorders to know what orders were passed to the steering guy, what orders were passed to the engine room so that in case it lands up in a court of law, uh, then they both have evidence. This is the normal SOP.

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What will happen with this evidence? Will there be a military process distinct from the diplomatic one?

In the previous incident that happened, I’m given to understand that their CO was disciplined; he was taken out of command or something of that nature, which never came out, but that is exactly what happened. It didn't happen because we complained; it happened because the diplomats made enough noise on both sides. The Indian Navy will make no noise, and neither will the Pakistan Navy make any noise. We will send all the evidence necessary to the Ministry of Defence, who will send it to the Ministry of External Affairs and leave it to them to deal with it.

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