China's navy mulls push into Arabian Sea

BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) — A Chinese admiral’s proposal to build a naval base in the Gulf of Aden, ostensibly to supports Beijing’s anti-piracy flotilla off Somalia, has alarm bells ringing in the region.

China’s growing naval encroachment in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean to protect its Middle Eastern oil supplies threatens eventual conflict with India, its longtime rival and Asia’s other economic titan that is also flexing its muscles in its regional quest for oil.

The Chinese navy joined the international operation against the Somali pirates a year ago with a couple of warships and a supply ship.

It was the first long-range projection of Chinese naval power in the region in 600 years and a clear part of Beijing’s strategy of restoring naval supremacy there.

But the Chinese navy has encountered difficulties in sustaining such operations, involving complex logistics, so far from home. One escort flotilla spent 124 days at sea without docking. Chinese warships have been using a French naval base at Djibouti for resupply.

On Tuesday Rear Adm. Yin Zhou, a senior official at the navy’s Equipment Research Center, proposed on the Defense Ministry’s Web site that Beijing establish its own base in the region “to strengthen our supply capacity.”

UPI