Round The World
New Delhi, 17 March 2015
New
Ocean Politics
GLUING
SECURITY & BLUE ECONOMY
By Ashok B
Sharma
India, of late, has woken up
to realize the importance of oceans, more particularly the one in its vicinity.
Better late than never, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a humble
beginning for integrating with countries in the Indian
Ocean rim. While security in the region remains a major concern,
another recipe for integration is the call for cooperation in the development
of Blue Economy.
In his recent visit to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka Modi urged
for cooperation in Blue Economy which is a multi-disciplinary approach for
exploitation of hydrocarbons and other marine resources, deep sea fishing,
preservation of marine ecology, mitigating climate change problems by addressing
environmental issues and disaster management. India with its advancement in
science and technology is in a position to lend its expertise in deep sea bed
activities, hydrographic surveys, weather predictions. India has a long record of hydrographic surveys
of Seychelles and Mauritius. The
agenda for combating climate change and stress on renewable sources of energy
are likely to gain support from many small island economies and littoral States.
Indian Ocean region is strategically
important as vital Sea Lane
of Communication (SLOCs) pass through this region from Hormuz
Strait, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Persian
Gulf to Malacca Strait
to South China Sea. These most critical trade
routes carry almost two-third of global energy trade, half of world’s
containerized cargo and a third of global bulk cargo. Security is, therefore,
an important aspect. Maritime piracy, threats of terrorist attacks, possible
attacks by private mercenaries, money laundering are the issues that need to be
dealt with in cooperation.
Launching of the coastal
surveillance radar project, assurance for giving another Dornier aircraft,
agreements on hydrographic survey and development of infrastructure in the Assumption Island
and other development assistance are the recent initiation of hydro-politics
with Seychelles. Modi in Mauritius
gave similar gestures through the joint commissioning of the offshore patrol
vessel, Barracuda built with Indian assistance, agreement to develop Agalega Island and a MoU on ocean economy along with
other development assistance. He invited both Seychelles
and Mauritius
to join the India-Maldives-Sri Lanka trilateral naval exercise. Will these two
countries be prepared to join?
Of course Prime Minister Modi could
not schedule his visit to Maldives
owing to internal political problems leading to the arrest of former President
Mohammad Nasheed. However, India-Maldives relations have not reached a level of
embitterment to cause much concern. But New
Delhi should be cautious in its approach.
After President Sirisena assumed
office in Sri Lanka there
are new hopes for its better relations with India. New
Delhi wants to give some more time to Sirisena to resolve the Tamil
issue and problems relating to Indian fishermen that have been aggravated after
the accords signed in 1974 and 1976 leading to the loss of territorial waters
and Kachatheevu Island
to India.
Setting up of a joint task force on ocean economy, apart from other development
cooperation and assistance are among the gestures New Delhi
extended to its immediate island neighbour for cooperation in the Indian Ocean rim.
Modi has, thus, ventured to initiate
a new hydro-politics in the Indian Ocean
gluing both security and Blue Economy. He expressed his intention to rope in
more countries in the region as partners in the existing India-Maldives-Sri
Lanka trilateral.
But the umbrella multilateral fora,
Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) needs revitalization to attain desired
vigour. The for a set up in 1997 and based on open regionalism, has only 20
member States. There is a need for all countries in the rim to be members. Even
Egypt situated on the banks
of Suez Canal is not a member, but an
observer.
Comparatively, the other voluntary
organization, Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) launched in 2008 has 35
member States. Out of its membership, 13 are members of IORA. There is a need
to include all members of IONS as members of IORA and Egypt and Pakistan which are members of IONS
should be co-opted in the other. In fact, IORA should be raised to the level of
summit level talks, to ensure absolute synergy between the two.
India being a major littoral State
in the Indian Ocean needs to take additional
initiative. Under the banner of IORA, India
hosted the first Indian Ocean Dialogue in 2014 in Kochi. The key take away from this dialogue
was that “IORA members should address security issues themselves rather than
relying on international forces.” This should be the real intention of IORA and
it should maintain its own centrality as ASEAN does in the Pacific.
Only a strong centrality and
solidarity of IORA can prevent any possibility of poaching by external powers.
Already there are attempts by China
to extend its “String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean.
China’s game plan for using
warm waters of the Indian Ocean can be seen
through its proposal for Maritime
Silk Route, One Belt-One Road, BCIM Corridor.
Apart from the US “pivot” to
Asia-Pacific, there is also the Chinese and Russian “pivot.” With a view to foil the negotiations for RCEP
proposed by ASEAN and others, the US has come up with Trans Pacific
Partnership (TPP). Similarly, Beijing
has proposed Asia-Pacific FTA and has set up an Asia Infrastructure Development
Bank. Russia
wants to propose a separate security architecture.
All these attempts by
extra-territorial powers may impact upon ASEAN, which proposes to move towards
an economic community by January 2016 and subsequently towards ASEAN Political
Security Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Centrality of ASEAN in
the Asia-Pacific is in the best interests of the region and New Delhi should continue supporting it.
India on its own also need to
take initiatives on security issues as enshrined in the Indian Maritime
Doctrine 2009 and Maritime Strategy 2007. The doctrine stresses on primary
areas of security concerns like northern Indian Ocean including those of its
contiguous Persian Gulf, principal international shipping lanes and choke
points in the Indian Ocean. The secondary
areas of security concerns are southern Indian Ocean, the Red
Sea and Western Pacific.
It is evident that the areas of India’s maritime interest encompass maritime
space of Asia, East Africa and Australia.
The Maritime Doctrine has, however, left out the South Atlantic Ocean which can
be a matter of interest in India’s
relationships with South American and Caribbean
countries and ensure further South-South cooperation. But the doctrine says
about distant operations, security multilateralism, freedom of navigation and
power projection.
A wake up call to India to
strengthen its Navy came after 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008. Modi
has initiated a new process of multilateralism in ocean politics by gluing
together security and Blue Economy. Much is awaited to be seen the action on
the ground.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
|