Introduction The second edition of Exercise SEA VIGIL, a two day pan-India biennial coastal defence exercise, was conducted on 12 and 13 January 2021.[1] The exercise, which is India’s largest such exercise, was facilitated by central ministries and state governments, and is conducted in the build-up to the Indian Navy’s theatre-level war-fighting exercise TROPEX [Theatre-level […]
A suspected Israeli angle to an explosion on board an Iranian container ship off Syria’s coast threatens to flare into another round of sea-based tit-for-tat strikes by these adversaries. An outbreak of hostilities, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, could derail efforts to forge peace among the nations of West Asia.
A surge of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea has led to calls for a major naval mission to police the maritime route off West Africa’s two largest oil producers, Nigeria and Angola. Meanwhile, Singapore’s commitment to combatting the rise in attacks along the Singapore Strait was demonstrated through the launch of its new […]
Introduction The last three decades have transformed global geopolitics. While the 1990s saw the dissolution of the USSR and the decline of Russia thereafter, the first two decades of the new millennium have led to the rise of China. The rapid economic transition during this period has provided Beijing the capacity to become a genuine […]
The evolving geopolitical contours of India’s relationship with China over the past year has now set its sights on reducing the trade imbalance between the two competitors. Reduction of the average turnaround time for ships at major ports in India to the tune of 35 per cent over the last six years has stimulated India’s […]
Introduction ‘Armed robbery against ships’ [hereinafter referred to as ‘armed robbery’] has been defined by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as “any illegal act of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, or threat thereof, other than an act of “piracy”, committed for private ends and directed against a ship, or against persons or […]
The signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Mauritius is India’s first such engagement with an African partner. The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation & Partnership Agreement (CECPA) with Mauritius is a culmination of India’s External Affairs Minister, Shri S Jaishankar’s, successful four-day tour to two key Indian Ocean countries and is expected to encourage other African […]
Although looking at a severe shortage of frigates in the near future, the Royal Navy has stepped up its commitments in the distant Indo-Pacific by announcing the deployment of the HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR). This deployment follows French forays into the South China Sea and is a collective show of strength against perceived […]
Even as Beijing launched a second Type 054 Class Frigate for the Pakistani Navy, Turkey – another of Pakistan’s all-weather ally – has begun the construction of the third ship of MILGEM class corvettes for its ally’s at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard (INSY). China is also enabling Pakistan to set up a network-enabled warfare capability with satellite feeds […]
Introduction Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is a democratically ruled island of about 23.6 million people across the Taiwan Strait from mainland China. Taiwan Strait, which is 110 kms wide, connects the South China Sea to the East China Sea. Taiwan’s GDP in 2019 was USD 605 billion and accounts for […]
Introduction On 26 November 2020, seven fishermen on board a sinking boat were rescued off the Maharashtra coast after fishermen from a nearby boat alerted the owner as well as the […]
This is the concluding segment of a two-part article — published online by the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) on successive days — which seeks to analyse the manner in which the intersection of two extraordinary events, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil-price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, produced a sequence of outcomes that […]