TOPIC : INDIA’S PRESIDENCY AT UNSC AND STRENTHENING OF MARITIME SECURITY

THE CONTEXT: India was elected to the UNSC for the eighth time in 2020 and began its two-year term this January. It is the council’s president in August and is, rightly, using the pulpit to focus on areas of vital interest affecting international peace and security.Recently the Prime Minister chaired the high-level debate on ‘Enhancing Maritime Security – A Case for International Cooperation’ by United Nations Security Council. The meeting was meant to discuss ways to effectively counter maritime crime and insecurity and strengthen coordination in the maritime domain.This article discusses about the importance of maritime security for India and challenges related to it.

WHAT IS MARITIME SECURITY?

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 deals with regional seas, territorial waters, rivers and ports.

THE FIVE PRINCIPLES OUTLINED BY PM MODI FOR MARITIME SECURITY

1. For free, maritime trade, it is necessary that we fully respect the rights of the seafarers of other countries.
2. Maritime disputes should be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.
3. Countries should jointly tackle maritime threats from non-state actors and natural disasters.
4. The maritime environment and marine resources needed to be conserved, highlighting pollution from plastic waste and oil spills.
5. A structure was required to boost maritime trade, for responsible maritime connectivity, with the development of global norms and standards.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARITIME SECURITY FOR INDIA

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

• India is a major maritime nation by virtue of its long coast line of around 7517 Kms on the western and eastern shelves of the mainland and also along the islands, bejeweled with 13 major and 176 non- major ports, strategically located on the world’s shipping routes.
• The geo-strategic position of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has risen in economic and political significance in the last two decades that have witnessed a tectonic shift in international power play from the Atlantic Ocean to the Asia-Pacific—more specifically to the IOR.

Thus India has a natural interest in enhancing maritime security.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

• The Indian economy is hugely dependent on energy imports to the extent of 81 percent of the total domestic oil consumption in 2015-16. These imports are transported by sea.
• While offshore oil gas production accounts for 80 percent of all domestic gas production.
• Nearly 95 percent of India’s international trade by volume and over 70 percent by value is carried over the seas.
• India is also the world’s fourth largest producer of fish, most of which comes from the sea.
• The Sagarmala project has provided a renewed thrust to port-led development and infrastructure for quick and efficient transportation of goods to and from ports.
• India has made significant strides towards harnessing deep sea resources with the International Seabed Authority according it pioneer status and an allocation of 75000 sq.km of seabed in the Central Indian Ocean.
• The living and non-living resources in Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which measure about two-third of the landmass of the country, are exclusive to India, as also the trade and transport facilities that navigate through this area.

Nurturing this nascent maritime economy will require concerted national efforts whilst ensuring that impediments and potential threats are kept at bay.

CULTURAL IMPORTANCE

• India’s location in the Indian Ocean has placed it at the nerve centre of trade and cultural cross-pollination in this region throughout history.
• Historical evidence exists of Indian linkages with Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mauritius with manifestations of Indian culture clearly seen in their temples and legends.
• Nurturing of these linkages is important for preservation of India’s interests in the region.
• The Ministry of Culture launched Project Mausam in June 2014 to re-connect and re-establish communications between countries of the Indian Ocean world.
• Focused efforts to further projects such as this and others like the Kerala government’s ‘Spice Route’ will strengthen India’s maritime interests in the IOR.

FOREIGN POLICY IMPORTANCE

• India has invested in a variety of sectors like infrastructure, industry, energy, and services in a number of countries in the immediate maritime neighbourhood and beyond.
• India has made significant strides towards harnessing deep sea resources with the International Seabed Authority according it pioneer status and an allocation of 75000 sqkm of seabed in the Central Indian Ocean.
• ONGC Videsh Ltd has invested in oil exploration in Vietnam’s EEZ in two blocks allotted by the Vietnamese Government. China has protested against this activity deeming it to be illegal in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

While India still seems to be taking baby steps in this sector of the economy, it is important that this area of national endeavour be suitably encouraged whilst protecting it from being jeopardised by inimical interests.

SECURITY IMPORTANCE

• Securing Sea lanes of Communication: In the Indian Ocean, three major Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCS) play a crucial role in the energy security and economic prosperity.

1. 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 21^st century.
2. Securing the sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) that traverse the oceans is of central importance to enhancing maritime security.
3. The Indian Ocean region transports 75% of the world’s maritime trade and 50% of daily global oil consumption.

THE CHALLENGES

Given its distinctive geography and the recent shift of global maritime focus from the Atlantic-Pacific combine to the Indo-Pacific continuum, the importance of the Indian Ocean Region in India’s national security calculus has greatly increased in the post-Cold War/post 9-11 era.

STRATEGIC CHALLENGES

• India’s main strategic challenge comes from its prosperous northern neighbour; China. The all-weather Sino-Pakistan alliance, with its strong anti-Indian slant, further complicates our security problems.
• The rapid growth of both economies has led to increasing reliance on energy and raw materials and transported by sea. This has focused sharp attention on the criticality, for both economies, of uninterrupted use of the sea- lanes for trade and energy transportation.
• Indian strategists are, naturally, paying attention to developments practically in all waters due to the country’s growing international profile. Their growing concern is regarding tensions rising in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Mediterranean.

SECURITY CHALLENGES

• India has a coastline of 7,517 kms, out of this 5,422 kms are with mainland. This vast coastline presents numerous security challenges like piracy, illegal landing of arms and explosives, infiltration, use of sea and off shore islands for criminal activities, drug and human trafficking and smuggling.
• Absence of physical barriers on the coast and presence of vital industries like port and important defence installations like RADARs and nuclear reactors enhances the risk and the need to protect its maritime region.

TRAFFICKING

• The Indian Ocean Region is regrettably home to the world’s most notorious areas of drug production, the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle.
• The trans-national networks established by the drug smugglers also serve as conduits for other destabilising activities like gunrunning and human trafficking.

MARITIME TERRORISM

• India’s huge coastline, a thriving maritime commercial community along its coast with nearly 200,000 fishing boats and a fishermen population of 4 million make the job of monitoring maritime activity an unenviable task.
• The ability of adversarial interests to exploit this vast maritime activity for launching attacks on land is therefore quite high, as was witnessed in the 26/11 terrorist acts.

UNSTABLE LITTORAL

• The Indian Ocean remains largely peaceful but has an unstable littoral and a northern periphery comprising countries experiencing conflict/near-conflict situations.
• The one concern is to prevent the tensions in the neighbouring waters from spilling into the Indian Ocean.

NON-TRADITIONAL CHALLENGES

• The growth of modern technology and socio-economic developments have also generated the so-called ‘non-traditional’ security challenges such as climate change, haphazard urbanisation of coastal regions, natural disasters and pandemics.
• All of them impact on security at sea and in the littoral regions which interact upon each other.

GLOBAL AND REGIONAL COOPERATION’S

• Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS)- The IONS is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime cooperation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean region. It has 23 countries as members including India.
• Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies Meeting (HACGAM)- HACGAM provides a platform for pan regional cooperation and was a takeoff from the Regional Senior Experts Meetings of Coast Guard Agencies of Asia which were held for combating piracy and armed robbery against ships. Have 17 nations as member including India.
• Indian Ocean Rim Association– Their charter is to promote the sustained growth and balanced development of the region and of the member states. Maritime Safety and Security is one of key roles. It has 20 countries as members including India.
• Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS)- They are a series of biennial meetings of the Pacific nations to discuss naval matters held on even numbered years. 25 countries have been participating including India.
• Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP)- CSCAP is a non-governmental (Track II) process for dialogue on security issues in the Asia-Pacific. Membership in CSCAP is on an institutional basis and consists of member countries. Current membership comprises Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.
• The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP)– was concluded in September 4, 2006, by 14 contracting countries for this region in which India was also a member. This also includes the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre for sharing of piracy-related information.

WAY FORWARD 

• A rules-based international order that recognises national sovereignty and territorial integrity, apart from stressing environmental sustainability, is the need of the hour.
• It is also important that the world sees enhanced coordination among countries in responding to high seas crimes including piracy, trafficking, narco-smuggling and other non-traditional maritime security threats, and acts jointly to meet humanitarian commitments at sea.
• The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides a general framework that could be built upon for a comprehensive approach to maritime security and guaranteeing of the seas as a global commons for the benefit of all.
• It is important that all countries agree to adhere to international rules governing the maritime domain and put them into effect nationally. Such an order should serve all nations, big or small, and ensure similar rights under international law to all.

CONCLUSION: Given the huge role of sea-borne trade in human wellbeing, ensuring freedom of navigation and safety on the seas is a global imperative. For India, maritime security is also important given its sea-facing geography and civilisational links developed over millennia through seafaring. It is, thus, once again in the fitness of things that India should push towards a comprehensive approach to maritime security.

Spread the Word