SOCOTRA
ISLAND – GEOGRAPHY
News:
Socotra island: India’s
geo-strategic opportunity to check China's overambition in Red Sea
What's
in the news?
●
Socotra Island is located at the strategic
chokepoint of the most critical sea route between the Gulf of Aden and the
Arabian Sea linking Asia and Africa in the trans-maritime trade architecture.
Key
takeaways:
●
The quantum of trade that keeps this route
busy is phenomenal. Though a Yemeni
territory, its geostrategic importance has attracted both the UAE and Saudi
Arabia.
Role
of UAE:
●
The
civil war in Yemen and the Houthi-Saudi confrontations have made the region
tense.
●
The UAE has utilised this crisis as an
opportunity and anchored its geo-economic and geostrategic interests on the
island and established its de facto presence there.
●
Socotra got its governorate status in 2013
and has seen development and connectivity infrastructures through the UAE’s
investments.
Opportunity
for India:
●
The Socotra formula, if worked out in
partnership with the UAE, could be a model in the case of other islands that
will give India the required leverage in the Indian Ocean region.
Go back to basics:
Socotra
Island:
●
Socotra or Soqotra, located between the Guardafui Channel and the
Arabian Sea, is the largest of four islands in the Socotra Archipelago.
●
The island of Socotra constitutes around
95% of the landmass of the Socotra archipelago.
●
The territory is officially part of It
sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden and lies some 240 kilometres east of the
coast of Somalia and 380 kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula.
●
In 2008 Socotra was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.