Sureesh Mehta

New Delhi, May 5: India’s navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, today voiced concern over an increase in submarine presence, including nuclear submarines, in neighbouring waters after satellite imagery revealed a new Chinese base south of Hong Kong.

Photographs taken by the satellite of the Sanya Naval Base on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea were published by The Daily Telegraph last week alongside a report that said it was a threat to US shipping and interests of Asian countries close to the Malacca Straits.

“It is not the nuclear submarine bases that matter, we are concerned over the number of nuclear submarines that are being built in our neighbourhood,” the navy chief said today.

Mehta added that the Indian Navy was aware of the presence of the Chinese naval base and its nuclear submarine building programme.

The “new” Chinese naval base is not in waters bordering India.

Nuclear submarines can stay under water for longer periods than conventional diesel-electric submarines. That makes them difficult to detect. They are also capable of firing missiles with nuclear warheads. China’s PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) navy is reported to be building five nuclear submarines in two classes.

The report on the Chinese naval base comes as naval headquarters were monitoring the presence of submarines from the US and France, too, in waters close to India. India also has its own 15-year-old nuclear submarine project called the ATV (Advanced Technology Vehicle) that is languishing with a prototype expected to hit waters not before 2010.

In the 1980s, India had leased a Russian nuclear submarine, the INS Chakra, that was subsequently returned, and may have negotiated the lease of two more Akula-class nuclear submarines for its fleet from the middle of this year.

Asked if India would increase the size of the ATV project or intensify efforts to acquire more nuclear submarines, Mehta said there was no such plan “at this point”.

India’s navy has been projecting its power from the Persian Gulf in the west to the Malacca Straits in the east and earlier this year hosted a summit of regional navy chiefs. The Chinese base in Sanya is not directly neighbouring India but its creation is being seen by the Indian Navy as a new launchpad from where the Chinese PLA navy would be capable of projecting its power

It is a “cause for security concern” to India, Mehta said when asked about the revelations by satellite pictures that China had amassed five nuclear submarines carrying long-range missiles.