On March 30, the fifth Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa presided over the summit, which was attended electronically by leaders from BIMSTEC member countries, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand are the […]
India, by virtue of having a large coastal frontage in the northern Indian Ocean, is faced with a wide range of maritime security challenges in both, traditional and non-traditional domains. While traditional threats arise primarily on account of the largely-inimical agendas of Pakistan and China and the related activities of their maritime entities in the […]
In the present century, the Indo-Pacific region has emerged as a seedbed of both confrontation and cooperation. Outside of the moves and countermoves of the USA and China are two other major players, namely, the EU and India. Concerted actions by the two actors have, until recently, been mostly half-hearted and, consequently, the public […]
The geopolitical dimension of maritime security accounts for the way geography constraints and informs (directly or indirectly) maritime security policies, regulations, measures, and operations, as well as how states take (tacitly or explicitly) geography into account when developing their maritime security strategies.
Representatives from the European Union’s (EU) East African naval force attended a second meeting on enhancing maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region. The first meeting resulted in a June joint naval exercise with Indian Navy elements collaborating with EUNav for Operation Atalanta, a five-ship, two-day effort.
A five-month intelligence operation spanning 34 countries and all oceans by Interpol revealed learned that the current depletion of marine living resources is driving a surge in fisheries-related crime. Operation Ikatere, the one-month tactical phase of the entire operation was supported by Interpol’s Fisheries Crime Working Group. It detected more than 100 cases of fisheries […]
Maersk, the world’s second-largest shipping line by container capacity, committed to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per transported container by 2030. A commitment of such a large proportion, by a major industry player, in a ‘hard-to-abate’ sector could encourage fellow shipping companies as well as other entities within the supply-chain to explore net-zero […]
With a 52% fall in the number of piracy and armed robbery incidents in the Gulf of Guinea in 2020, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Assembly urged governments to continue to cooperate with and assist States in the Gulf of Guinea to develop their national and regional capabilities to improve maritime governance in waters under […]
At the 8th Indian Ocean Dialogue on Post Pandemic Indian Ocean, India advocated its vision of SAGAR as a bedrock to establish trust, transparency, respect for international maritime rules, equal access as a right under the international law, peaceful resolution of the dispute and enhanced maritime cooperation. SAGAR could play a vital role in deterring […]
Japan, India’s QUAD partner, has been expanding its maritime engagement with Southeast Asia. It has augmented the capacity of the Philippine Coast Guard by supplying it with its second multi-role response vessel (MRRV). Parallelly, it has upgraded its defence ties with Vietnam by signing the ‘Japan-Vietnam Defense Cooperation at the New Level’. Further, this year’s […]
The Indian Navy, which has played a large role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations in the Asia-Pacific since the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, is finalising a standard operating procedure (SOP) for dealing with natural disasters in the region. The creation of an SOP for natural disasters comes shortly after the Navy […]
Shortly after participating in Foreign Minister-level discussion with the UAE, the US and Israel on maritime security, among many other issues, India joined the 34-member Combined Maritime Force (CMF) based in Bahrain. These two initiatives demonstrate India’s enthusiasm to be an active participant in various strategic platforms to secure the Indian Ocean Region against maritime […]