London: Describing Pakistan as the "obvious threat", India has expressed "concern" about Chinese Navy's "close interaction" with a few Indian Ocean states and is "closely monitoring" Chinese activity in developing Gwadar port on Pakistan's Western Makran coast, chief of Naval staff admiral Madhavendra Singh has said.

China, which allocates around 33 per cent of its defence outlay to Navy, is reportedly helping Myanmar modernise Naval bases that could support Chinese submarine operations while the development of Gwadar port could seriously endanger vital Indian shipping routes in the Persian Gulf, said admiral Singh in an interview to the 'Janes Defence' weekly.

According to the weekly, the Admiral neither confirmed nor denied the Navy's plans to develop the sea leg of India's nuclear triad.

He however said, "It makes a lot of sense to keep nuclear assets at sea and the government has said it will do so." Nuclear weapon states – France, Russia, UK and US – are increasingly placing their deterrence at sea, he added.

"It makes sense for India, that has a no-first-use policy of employing nuclear weapons, to have a deterrent that is absolutely survivable. Nuclear assets underwater are difficult to target," Admiral Singh said, asserting that it aims to make the Navy as the "best, largest and operationally most efficient force in Indian Ocean region by 2015".

PTI