Chapter 1290 Strategic Location
Ambassador Thomson said: "Your country is of great significance to regional stability, and we in France are also willing to support East Africa to play a greater role in the Indian Ocean. I just don't know that your country is What are the plans for the development strategy of the Indian Ocean? ”
Diplomacy is a step-by-step test, so even if Thomson makes the decision to make good friends with East Africa, he will not easily give East Africa a commitment.
He used East Africa's Indian Ocean strategy as a wedge to open up the next topic, thereby facilitating an agreement with East Africa.
Facing Ambassador Thomson’s inquiry, Freer understood it well. He pretended to be helpless and said: “Although East Africa is based on the Indian Ocean and is a regional power, we have always lacked strategic locations in the Indian Ocean. This makes We are very passive in the Indian Ocean ”
“For example, the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, is controlled by the British, and the British on both sides of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, second only to the Suez Canal, also have profound influence.”
“ And our east coast of East Africa is also threatened to a certain extent, such as the Socotra Islands, Serbia The Seychelles Islands, the Maldives Islands, the Chagos Islands, etc., make our situation very passive.”
The Socotra Islands are islands in the Gulf of Aden. They belonged to Yemen in their previous life, and they happened to be in the Gulf of Aden and. The intersection of the Arabian Sea and the bridgehead controlling the Red Sea routes has a very prominent strategic position.
Of course, its importance is obviously not as important as the Suez Canal and the Bab el Mandeb Strait. If we control the Suez Canal and the Bab el Mandeb Strait, it will be equivalent to cutting off the lifeline of the Red Sea route.
Controlling the Socotra Islands obviously cannot achieve this effect. After all, passing ships can still choose to pass along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The width of the sea between the Socotra Islands and the Arabian Peninsula is as high as hundreds of kilometers. , it is a bit difficult to block the Gulf of Aden based on this, and it will consume more resources.
Of course, although it will not completely control the Red Sea route through the archipelago, it can also pose a huge threat to ships along the route, especially hostile countries.
In the previous life of the 1980s, in order to compete with the US Navy and to realize part of the warm-water maritime strategy that the Russians had always dreamed of, the Soviet Union entered the Indian Ocean and became the backer behind South Yemen. .
The Soviet Union stationed a fleet on Socotra Island and used it as the Soviet naval base in the Middle East. It was not withdrawn from here until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The well-known Somali pirates in their previous lives also used Socotra Island as a supply point and hiding place, intercepting merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden and gaining a large amount of ill-gotten gains.
Before the rise of East Africa, Socotra Island was controlled by Arabs and Portuguese, and is now in the hands of the British.
It's not that East Africa doesn't want to control Socotra, but that East Africa's history is too short. By the time East Africa has the strength to intervene in Indian Ocean affairs, it has already fallen into the hands of the British.
In fact, the value of Socotra to the UK is relatively trivial. After all, the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are in the hands of the British, and Socotra is extremely arid, lacking rivers and lakes on the island, and even Natural rainwater is the basic water source.
The reason for this is that East Africa also attaches great importance to the Socotra Islands. In addition to its location as the gateway to the Gulf of Aden, the Socotra Islands can be said to be the gateway to the East African ocean for East Africa.
After the Socotra Islands, heading south is the east coast of East Africa, which is somewhat similar to the value of the South China Sea islands and reefs of the Far Eastern Empire to its maritime strategy.
If East Africa controls the Socotra Islands, it can build a maritime defense line to provide early warning and interception of enemies coming from the Mediterranean or Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden.
Not to mention the Seychelles Islands, it can be said that since the establishment of the East African Navy, it has been coveting the Seychelles, an important Indian Ocean island group.
The Seychelles Islands are located in the southwest Indian Ocean and consist of ninety-two islands. Although the Seychelles Islands are small in area, their strategic value, especially to East Africa, is extremely prominent.
The Seychelles Islands are more than 1,600 kilometers away from the east coast of Africa. They are far away from the eastern continent of East Africa. They are only 900 kilometers away from Madagascar to the southwest. They are a shortcut for East African ships to India and the South Ocean.
In the last century, France and the United Kingdom had a conflict over the Seychelles. At that time, France and the United Kingdom were the only two superpowers in the world. Being valued by both countries also shows that the Seychelles Strong strategic value.
The East African Navy has always hoped to seize the Seychelles Islands, so that East Africa's maritime defense line can directly expand about 1,600 kilometers eastward to the Indian Ocean, greatly improving East Africa's maritime security. Because there are almost no usable islands between the Seychelles Islands and East Africa. Although there are islands such as Zanzibar and Pemba in the offshore East Africa, they are too close to the East African mainland and it is difficult to serve as early warning and isolation.
If an enemy sneaks into East Africa from the Indian Ocean, the cities and ports on the east coast of East Africa will be very vulnerable.
After all, after leaving the Seychelles Islands, the sea area between East Africa and East Africa is vast. East Africa has no way of predicting which route the enemy will choose and which city or port in East Africa will be attacked.
This is also the main reason why East Africa once prioritized the deployment of a large number of offshore defense projects along the coast.
This point can be referred to the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. After losing strategic locations such as the Ryukyu Islands, potential threats from the Pacific such as the United States and Japan took the strategic initiative, allowing the Far Eastern Empire to The strategies in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea are extremely passive.
However, there is good news. That is, the Seychelles is much smaller than the Ryukyu Islands and has relatively scarce resources. This means that the enemy's military forces that can be deployed here are small in scale and can easily be counterattacked by East Africa.
Assuming that there is a war between Britain and East Africa, the East African Navy may forcefully capture this strategic location from all directions, and it is bound to become a priority target for the East African Navy.
Furthermore, the Seychelles Islands are relatively isolated, and it is more difficult for the UK to mobilize naval support from other regions.
The first place that can support the Seychelles Islands is the Maldives Islands and Chagos Islands mentioned by Freer. The British have military bases in both places.
If the Socotra Islands and the Seychelles Islands are the first island chain used by the UK to contain the East African Navy, then the Maldives and the Chagos Islands are the second island chain.
The reason why it is said to be a containment is mainly because the distance between these strategic locations is too far, making it difficult to coordinate and dispatch, and it is difficult to maintain a long-term and large garrison scale.
The blockade island chain facing East Africa is far less exploitable than the two island chains the United States used against the Far Eastern Empire in its previous life.
Take the Socotra Islands and the Seychelles Islands for example. The straight-line distance between them is more than 1,500 kilometers, and the sea area in between is very empty. If you want to rely on these two islands to control East Africa, There is no possibility of a coastal blockade.
Even if the United Kingdom mobilizes all its naval forces to the Indian Ocean, it will not be able to achieve a complete blockade of the east coast of East Africa by relying on the first island chain.
Of course, the British certainly did not expect that the two island chains would turn the East African Navy into a green water navy, that is, a naval force for offshore defense.
The navies of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are of this type. Due to geographical restrictions, they can only dominate the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and it is difficult to break out of the cage.
If nothing else, even if Britain really has the energy to blockade the east coast of East Africa, the problem is that East Africa is a three-ocean country. East Africa has not only the east coastline, but also the west coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean. In the direction of the Pacific Ocean , East African naval power cannot be ignored.
So, the East African Navy has become a natural ocean-going navy since it was equipped with large-scale ships with ocean-going capabilities.
The maritime situation in East Africa is naturally suitable for the development of naval power. This can be seen from the beginning of the birth of the East African Navy, which became a service at the same level as the army.
The reason why I mention this is naturally because the navies of some countries were not positioned like this at the beginning. The typical one is Germany. The original purpose of the German navy and its current main strategic goal are to assist Germany. The army came to realize its dominance in Europe, and even the Prussian Navy was composed of many army soldiers at the beginning.
(End of this chapter)