New Delhi, March 19, 2005

The Navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, left for the USA last night where he will meet defence secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr Rumsfeld, who is believed to have the support of President George Bush, despite the military and disciplinary problems in Iraq, will drop-in during a meeting the Admiral will be having with a senior official at the Pentagon, for protocol reasons. During the meeting, the Naval chief and Mr Rumsfeld, who has been here twice, may discuss issues relating to the Indian Ocean situation.

The Navy has made it clear that the US is a neighbour. The previous chief, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, had said so. Besides the base in Diego Garcia, the US Navy had seven or eight nuclear submarines not very far away during the Iraq war. Even now, there are one or two in the vicinity. During a chief’s visit, procurement is rarely the focus. But this time, issues relating to the purchase of submarine rescue vessels and the P3C Orion marine reconnaissance plane could come up.