(calm music) - [Narrator] Beneath the tranquil shores of a coastal village on the Bay of Bengal, India is building a
multi-billion dollar naval base. Designed to protect India's growing fleet of nuclear submarines in a
key area of the Indian Ocean, 

the new base, INS Varsha,
has a secret design feature. - Its location essentially allows for the underground docking of submarines. - [Narrator] Here's why this project forms the backbone of India's plans to keep China's ambitions
in the region in check. 

(light music)
The Bay of Bengal lies north of critical shipping lanes
that carry around 30% of all globally traded goods
towards this narrow waterway known as the Strait of Malacca. And around 80% of China's oil imports 

pass through this critical choke point. - The Strait of Malacca can be controlled by a number of powers,
which China might plausibly find itself in a conflict with, first and foremost the United States Navy, but also, secondarily, the Indian Navy. 

- [Narrator] Some China
experts believe the waterway could play a key role in
any conflict over Taiwan (engines roaring)
or the South China Sea. - One of the ways in which
China has tried to reduce its perceived
vulnerabilities in this space 

is by building a growing naval presence in the Northern Indian Ocean.
(tense music) - [Narrator] Over the years, China has been building and investing in commercial ports in
Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka through its
Belt and Road initiative, 

the infrastructure project
Beijing has been promoting since 2013 in more than 150 countries. Chinese vessels, including those belonging to the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, are now frequently spotted in these ports, like these two landing ships and a guided missile destroyer
that visited Sri Lanka's port

in late August and docked
just 4,000 feet away from the Indian guided
missile destroyer INS Mumbai. - These vessels have habituated
states within the region to the idea of a Chinese naval presence. (light music) - [Narrator] Beijing has
also helped Bangladesh

to build the country's first ever full-fledged submarine base. The BNS Sheikh Hasina naval base is still under construction,
but was inaugurated in 2023, and at least one of Bangladesh's
first two submarines, also made in China, appears
to already be stationed there.

- What China's investments
in both civilian ports, but also military facilities,
can do is create access points which the PLA can rely on
for more routine sustainment, which in turn can allow it to embark on more prolonged deployments
in the Indian Ocean region.

(calm music) - [Narrator] Satellite
images showing the expansion of INS Varsha reveal India's
efforts to counterbalance China's growing presence
in its own backyard. - The most important
part of the base will be the underground facilities
within which Indian submarines

can dock towards the the
right hand side of the photo. The ability to build
tunnels offer advantages, both in terms of hardening, but also protection against
adversary surveillance. - [Narrator] And its location
on the Bay of Bengal itself

offers significant tactical
advantages for India. - It's relatively close to a
number of Indian air bases. It's an area in which the Indian navy enjoys considerable local superiority over the People's Liberation
Army Navy, and it's ringed

on three sides by either
India's own territory or states that are neutral or
partially aligned with India. Although obviously there's an
ongoing competition with China for influence in many of these states. (light music) - [Narrator] Military experts say the base

will eventually host up to
a dozen nuclear submarines. India currently only has two. Both are Arihant class ballistic
missile submarines or SSBNs. The newest one, INS Arighat,
can carry 12 ballistic missiles with a range of around 430
miles, or four ballistic missiles

that can travel beyond 2,000 miles, putting China's naval base in
Hainan well within the range. India's third SSBN should be ready in 2025,
(camera flashing) but India still lags far behind China,
(camera flashing)

which already has 12 nuclear submarines. (camera flashing) - India doubtless would like to change this balance in the future. That being said, comparing numbers of like for like platforms is
not necessarily the best way to look at a military
balance, because geography

and missions determine which
platforms are most relevant. The question is not
simply how many submarines of each type each country operates. It's also one of reach because
obviously operating closer to Indian shores, many of India's
diesel-electric submarines

are within operating
ranges where they can be pretty effective against
Chinese attack submarines. - [Narrator] The Indian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn't respond to requests
for comment on how New Delhi perceives China's
activities in the region.

China's foreign ministry
said Beijing's cooperation in the region is not
targeted at any third party. - Even if Chinese engagement
doesn't necessarily represent a military threat in the
sense that it can enable the PLA navy to fight in the
region, what it can enable

and why the Indian government
and Navy are perturbed by it is because it can enable
a more sustained presence in the region that can set
the preconditions for China to eventually be a much more
credible military player in the Indian Ocean than it is today.

(tense music) - [Narrator] The expansion of India's nuclear submarine project comes as Beijing and New Delhi
agree to deescalate another area of tension
on the Himalayan border. But their competition in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal

How India’s New Nuclear Submarine Base Challenges China’s Naval Plans | WSJ

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