NEW DELHI, August 14: The Maldives will be brought under the Indian security umbrella. Defence Minister AK Antony will visit the moderate Islamic nation next week to launch the process to bring it into India’s security grid.

The move comes after the island state approached India and conveyed its worry that one of its island resorts could be taken over by armed terrorists because it lacks military assets and surveillance capabilities to protect itself.

India will permanently base two helicopters in the Maldives to enhance its surveillance capabilities and ability to respond swiftly to likely threats.

Antony is visiting Male on August 22, and will hand over the first helicopter, from the Coast Guard, to begin the process. The second chopper will come from the Indian Navy. Its transfer is to be cleared shortly.

The Maldives government expressed its keen interest in joining the Indian security grid during talks between the top leaders of the two countries some time ago, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Thursday.

But the proposal was given a concrete shape on June 30 during a visit to Male by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, then Defence and Foreign Secretaries Ajay Singh and Shivshankar Menon.

The two countries already have a security cooperation agreement against sea-borne terrorism and piracy. The framework of a detailed agreement to include the Maldives into the Indian coastal security grid was drawn up during the visit of officials, led by Narayanan.

This will be an exclusive agreement between the two south Asian neighbouring countries, and the Maldives will not approach other regional countries for a similar agreement.

 During his visit to Male next week, Antony will be accompanied by senior Navy officers, who will share with their Maldivian counterparts India’s experience of handling security in the strategically crucial chain of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Maldives has coastal radars on only two of its 26 atolls. India will help set up radars on all the 26 atolls for seamless coverage of approaching vessels and aircraft.

The coastal radar chain in the Maldives will be networked with the Indian coastal radar system. India has already undertaken a project to install radars all along its entire, 7,516km-long, coastline.

The radar chains of the two countries will be interlinked and a central control room in India’s Coastal Command will get a seamless radar picture.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will carry out regular Dornier sorties over the island nation to look out for suspicious movements or vessels.

The Security Naval Command will oversee the inclusion of the Maldives into the Indian security grid.

Military teams from the Maldives will visit the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Command to observe how India manages security and surveillance of the critical island chain.

In the past, the Indian Navy has transferred a fast attack craft to the Maldives. The INS Tillanchang was gifted to it in 2006 by then Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.