Maritime security
Source: By The Times of India
PM Narendra Modi will chair a high-level open debate at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on enhancing maritime security on 9 August 2021 evening at 5.30 via video conferencing. PM Modi will be the first Indian PM to preside over a UNSC open debate.
Being conducted at the initiative of PM Modi, the debate titled 'Enhancing Maritime Security - A Case for International Cooperation', will be attended by several heads of state and government of member states of the UNSC, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
While the UNSC had discussed different aspects of maritime security in the past, it will be the first time that maritime security will be discussed in a holistic manner as an exclusive agenda item in a high-level open debate, said the government.
The latest buzzword in international relations, maritime security doesn’t have a commonly agreed definition. It classifies issues in the maritime domain comprising national security, marine environment, economic development, and human security. Besides world's oceans, it also deal with regional seas, territorial waters, rivers and ports.
Maritime security is of utmost significance to the world community as it battles with various maritime concerns ranging from piracy at sea to illegal immigration and weapon smuggling. It also deals with threats of terrorist attacks and environmental catastrophes. The recent incident involving a suspected drone attack on an Israeli-controlled tanker in the north Arabian Sea off Oman, killing two crew members, is a case in point.
For India, maritime security is an important aspect of national security as it has a coastline of over 7,000 km. With advancement in technology, physical threats in the maritime region have now been overshadowed by technological threats.
India’s exports and imports have remained mostly across the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean. Therefore, securing Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCs) have been an important issue for India in the 21st century.
Apart from other concerns, there are also worries about China as an emerging IOR (Indian Ocean Region) power, with its growing footprint. In 2019, the Chinese ‘research’ vessel Shiyan 1, was seen near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. But it wasn’t a lone incident. In August 2020, in the middle of the ongoing conflict in eastern Ladakh on the Sino-Indian border, China sent its Yuan Wang class research vessel into the Indian Ocean.
While delivering a lecture in 2019, Indian Navy Chief Karambir Singh said, "All these traditional and non-traditional challenges require India to commit substantial effort, resources and continuously evolve its strategy for maritime security in the region.” Maritime security is now the centre of India’s foreign policy.
‘SAGAR’ vision
With an aim to deepen economic and security cooperation with its maritime neighbours and assist in building their maritime security capabilities. PM Modi, during his visit to Mauritius, in 2015, put forward the vision of SAGAR (‘Security and Growth for all in the Region’).
Recent visits by external affairs ministers to India's maritime neighbours underlined the vision focusing on cooperative measures for sustainable use of oceans, and provides a framework for secure and stable maritime domain in the region.
More recently, the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Colombo for the India-Sri Lanka-Maldives trilateral. Held after a gap of six years, it focused on maritime security in the Indian Ocean region.
The vision was further elaborated through the Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative (IPOI) four years later. The initiative focused on seven pillars of maritime security - Maritime Ecology, Maritime Resources, Capacity Building and Resource Sharing, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation and Trade Connectivity and Maritime Transport.
