Hey, Over There! Isn’t that a North Korean WMD Smugging Ship?
Some ferry passengers off the Andaman Islands probably never figured they’d be signing up to join the Proliferation Security Initiative when they bought their passage:
The sources said the observant passengers were on their way from Port Blair to Hut Bay on a ferry called “˜”˜M V Hut Bay”. They first noticed the ship about 7 km from Hut Bay, the entry point for the Little Andaman islands, in a highly isolated stretch of the sea. One of the passengers informed the captain of the ferry. He brought it to the notice of harbour master Ashwani Kumar at Hut Bay. [Times of India]
Someone give that dude a ree-ward!
The Indian Coast Guard later boarded the ship, which they can do, since the ship was within their territorial waters. The North Korean captain is being questioned based on the ship’s “suspicious” movements. And since you were wondering, why yes, the Andaman islands do border the sea lane between the Strait of Molacca and Burma.
Hmmm.
It’s worth noting that this is a positive step towards India abandoning its pretensions of “nonalignment” and increasingly asserting itself towards one side (in this case, the Good Guys)
Janus, I hope the Indians really are aligning with us, but let’s wait and see. Like all post-colonial nations, they really hate imperialism. They sorely resented the humiliation and exploitation. We need to avoid making demands on them, and then, I hope, our policy and theirs can grow together.