New Delhi: An Indian Kilo class submarine spooked Chinese warships that were sent to patrol pirate infested waters in the Gulf of Aden and the two navies engaged in an hour long game of 'hide and seek' in international waters last month, Chinese media reports have said.
In the first such incident involving Indian and Chinese warships that has come to light, media reports from China said that its warships 'forced' the Indian submarine to surface after over an hour of maneuvers during which anti submarine choppers were scrambled from the Chinese destroyers.
While officers in the Indian Navy have acknowledged that track was being kept of the Chinese warships that transited from the Malacca Straits to Somalia waters, they denied that the India sub was forced to surface during the 'encounter'. "It is a routine procedure. We do keep track of warships transiting near Indian waters through all means possible. However, the reports of the Indian submarine having surfaced are incorrect," a senior Navy Officer said.
Chinese media reports said that the incident took place on Janaury 15 in the waters near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait that separates Yemen and Djibouti. They said that the Chinese warships picked up the Indian submarine on sonar and after 'rounds of manoeuvring during which both sides tried to test for weaknesses in the other's sonar system' the Indian submarine was forced to surface.
However, the Indian Navy has denied that any of its submarines surfaced in the Gulf of Aden. A senior officer said that the Chinese ships were being tracked through various means throughout their transit near Indian waters but submarines were in the area at the time that the reports suggest. The Chinese reports said that the submarine tried to escape by diving into deeper waters but anti submarine choppers were sent to trail the Indian vessel that forced it to surface.
China had for the first time sent two destroyers to Somalia last month to patrol the waters, its first deployment to far away waters. India already has a warship in the area and has been patrolling the region for more than three months. |