… At the Delhi Conference, it was accepted that the Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, Coco Islands along with Preparis Island would be kept under British control as the
Andaman Islands Dependency. The official reason was that the new Indian State, along with Dravida Nadu, Burma and Karenistan, didn’t had the naval capacity to keep control of the archipelago ; the true reason was that the United Kingdom would retain control of a strategic location, forming the boundary between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, allowing them to rapidly intervene in the region, particularly in the wake of Japanese expansionism.
Needless to say, India (soon-to-become Bharatavarsha), Dravida Nadu, Karenistan (soon-to-become Kawthoolei) and moreover Burma, particularly under the Aung San regime, would claim control of the archipelago. For the Japanese-led Co-Prosperity Sphere, the British holdout in the Andaman Islands would remain a persistent matter. Aung San, even after he broke with the Japanese, would do continuous claims over the Andaman Islands, forming integrant part of his “Greater Burma” irrendentist plans, even pushing it through the World Council, to no avail.
During the
South Asian War (1964-1967), as the Japanese occupied northern Burma, the Japanese High Seas Fleet would meet the British naval expeditionary force in the Andaman Islands, in an attempt to secure passage to the Andaman Sea and Western Indonesia ; the B
attle of the Andaman Islands raged from May, 12 to May, 17 1966, and resulted in a British victory ; the battle is noticeable for having seen the sinking of aircraft carrier Susanoo, the biggest of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the time. After the end of the South Asian War, the United Kingdom reinforced its garrison at the Andaman Islands, increasing it to a 2,500, until subsequent budget cuts impacted the Navy at the turn of the century.
The end of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the rise of China as the new Asian hegemon and the end of the Aung San regime did nothing to stop Burmese claims to the Andaman Islands, its reclaimation being one of the goals of the different administrations of the Burmese Confederation ; the position on the continuing British presence constitute “an anachronic perpetuation of colonial practices” at worst, according to Burma and China, or “an issue referring to the right of peoples to self-determination” at best, according to the World Council and even the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. The diminshed military presence of Britain in the archipelago, along with the precedent of the Argentine takeover of the Falklands back in 1976, tended to accrediate Burmese nationalist claims. On 15 November 2018, a party of fifteen armed Burmese nationalists in rigibd inflatable boats landed in Northern Andaman Islands in order to try a military takeover of the archipelago ; they were all arrested by the Royal Marines two days later but the incident caused an international uproar.
On 1 February 2021, as most of the garrison of the Andaman Islands had been redeployed to the Home Islands to help enforce order due to the Wuchang Pneumonia lockdown, the Burmese military launched an
amphibious invasion of the British Overseas Territory, with a 2000-men force, with full approval of the government ; all British military personnel surrendered and Port Blair, capital to the Territory, was seized by the Burmese in 14 hours. Burmese President Zin Mar Aung proclaimed the annexation of the Andaman Islands the following days, changing the name of Port Blair to Port Aung San.
The situation of the Andaman Islands could become a hot issue in the following days, as back in London, most of the cabinet and opposition has criticized Prime Minister Rushanara Ali for failing to property respond to the invasion, instead choosing to have the takeover adressed by the World Council. Germany, Russia and Italy already announced that they would remain neutral on the matter, while the United States, China and Japan hailed the takeover as “a successful ending to colonial legacy”...