Address to the EU Head of Mission, HE Ambassador Kozlowski on ‘India’s Maritime Policy’, by Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director Vivekananda International Foundation, 24 Nov 2017

Introduction

Geopolitics of the Indian Ocean is evolving rapidly. Global stability is closely linked to the stability of the Indian Ocean. Indian Ocean is an artery of global trade, particularly that in oil and gas. Nearly 100,000 ships pass every year through close to the Indian coasts. Nearly a half (1/2) of world’s global trade, 1/3^rd of bulk cargo, 2/3^rd of global oil shipment pass through the Indian Ocean. About 40 percent of world’s population lives here.

India Ocean is susceptible to a variety of threats – Political instability, piracy, terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) proliferation, illegal migrations. Many of the failed status are located in the region. It is also susceptible to the adverse effects of Climate Change – sea level rise, extreme weather events etc. the 2004 Tsunami killed nearly 200,000 people in a matter of hours. Since then dozens of cyclones and hurricanes have killed thousands of people in different countries and disrupted economies and societies.

Indian Ocean washes the shores of 35 countries. Many of them are unstable. Radicalization is rampant in these places. Radical elements have often attacked maritime assets of several countries. Several terrorists groups find sustenance in the region. The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is getting increasingly militarized. Thanks to piracy and other threats, 120 warships from 28 nations are present in the Indian Ocean. The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and Shared Awareness and De-confliction (SHADES) are two such groupings. NATO’s Combined Task Force (CTF) 508, EUNAVFOR CTF 465, and CTFs 150, 151 and 152 are operational. China has maintained a steady and increasing naval presence in the region. The Persian Gulf houses several military bases of external powers.

China is the latest country to send submarines to the waters of Indian Ocean, close to India. China is also building a maritime silk road as part of BRI which will connect China to the far off ports in South Asia and Africa. Their port building activity in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan has string geopolitical ramifications. The Chinese have acquired a naval base in Djibouti, an indication of Chinese ambition to emerge as a global power. The naval modernization of China is going on rapidly and includes building of air craft carriers, submarines and maintaining a constant naval presence in the region.

India and the Indian Ocean

Sardar KM Pannikar, an Indian diplomat-strategist, wrote that if Independent India did not pay attention to its maritime neighborhood, it would lose its independence. He based his analysis on the fact that India was historically a maritime nation. It lost its dominance of the ocean routes to European powers from 16th Century and got colonized as result. He emphasized the need for a strong navy so that India could resist the outside pressures.

Historically, India has had maritime links on the West up to the east coast of Africa and on the East right up to South China Sea. The Monsoons favored the trade between India and Mesopotamia. These links were in the nature of flourishing maritime trade. They go back to the days of Harappa civilization (3000-1500 BC), probably earlier. It is known that the Harappa civilisation was connected with several civilizations of the time eg Dilmun, Mesopotamian etc. India is surrounded by the seas on three sides – Arabian Sea on the west, Bay of Bengal on the east and Indian Ocean on the south. Indian peninsula juts 2000 kilometers out into the Indian Ocean. This geographical fact - Himalayas in the north and the Indian Ocean in the east and west has shaped India’s culture, civilization and history and politics. India itself is made out of the collision of Gondwana land which broke off from Australia and collided with the Tibetan plateau some 400 million years ago. In the East, there were trade links between India and up to China for centuries. The Chola king Raja Raja maintained a 1000-ship navy around 1000 AD. Millions of people crossed the Bay of Bengal in the 19th and twentieth centuries to Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and settled there. Many of them returned but many settled there. The Act East Policy and Look West Policy are geared towards reviving India’s maritime links.

With a coastline of over 7500 kilometers and some 1300 islands and rocks in two prominent island groups, EEZ of 2.01 million sq. kilometers, 13 coastal states, 13 major ports and 200 non-major ports, 200,000 fishing vessels, India is highly vulnerable to maritime pressures. In 1971, the US fleet Enterprise came to the Bay of Bengal to pressure India which was then involved in the East Pakistan where the Pakistani army was conducting a genocide of the Bengalis. In 2008, the LeT terrorists came in boat form Karachi undetected, landed on Mumbai coast and killed nearly 200 Indians and foreigners in the infamous terrorist attacks known as 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Clearly, the Indian coastal security was weak and needed strengthening.

India’s Maritime Policy

At the time of independence, the Indian Navy had a handful of ships in its fleet. For a long time maritime interests were not adequately represented in India’s foreign and security policy. Many countries who are now looking towards cooperation with India were dead opposed to the growth of the Indian navy. The situation is now changing.

India has realized that Oceans are vital for India’s prosperity and security. At the same time maritime cooperation is essential for stability in the region. The drivers of India’s maritime policy are: protecting India’s sea trade. combatting terrorism; responding to the natural and manmade disasters at sea, safeguarding India’s trade through the sea lanes of communications maritime choke points (there are seven of these – Hurmuz, Malacca, Red Sea, Sunda, Lombok and Ombai Wattar), safeguarding against piracy and ensuring the safety of Indians in the various trouble spots.

The last one is important. Nearly seven millions Indian nationals work in the Gulf region countries. India has launched many complex operations in the recent years to evacuate its citizens from Yemen, Syria, Libya, Kuwait and Algeria.

Net Security Provider

India is also playing an increasing role as a net security provider in the region. There are several instances of this.

In 1987 in Sri Lanka and in 1988 in Maldives, India, on the request of these countries had to intervene militarily to safeguard the regimes who were facing threats from LTTE and coup leaders. Indian Navy has also been asked to provide security at the Asian games in Qatar and in Mozambique.

Indian Navy cooperated with the navies of the US, Japan, Australia in providing relief following the 2004 Tsunami natural disaster in Indian Ocean. This was the building of four cornered cooperation among the navies of the four countries in High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR).

India’s Act East policy is aimed at restoring maritime trade and cultural links with the countries of the South East Asia. India looks forward to cooperation with Japan, Australia, US to promote stability and growth in the Indo-Pacific region. Recently the officials of these countries met on the side lines of the ASEAN summit. India and US area. In addition India is actively participating in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) plus and East Asia Summit. The focus is on information sharing, HADR, training and capacity building. These cooperative arrangements lend stability in the region. These are non-threatening.

India’s approach is cooperative and engagement oriented. Its cooperation includes, security dialogues, naval visits, joint exercises, cooperation in HADR, Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and white shipping information exchange. Over the years, India has developed close cooperation with the various countries; example are: Malabar series of naval exercises since 1991 with the US in which Japan also participated recently, ‘Milan’ series of exercises, ‘Indra’, ‘Varuna’ and other exercises. India also hosted the International Fleet Review in 2016. India has trilateral maritime cooperation with Sri Lanka and Maldives and is open to Seychelles and Mauritius joining in.

The Indian prime minister has visited several Indian Ocean counties like Mauritius, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka in 2015 and Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. We are cooperating strongly with several European countries on bilateral plane. This includes France and UK. Recently some ‘PASSEX’ exercises were conducted with European Union (EU).

India’s Approach

India’s approach to maritime cooperation is summed up in PM’s phrase SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region_. SAGAR also means ocean in Hindi language. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, speaking at 2^nd Indian Ocean in Colombo on 31 August 2017 said, “Our vison for the Indian ocean region is to preserve its organic unity while advancing cooperation.” India is not interested in containment of any country.

Cooperation and engagement lie at the heart of India’s maritime policy. Some examples are:

• India’s participation in IORA, IONS, ADMM+, EAS, trilateral with Sri Lanka and Maldives, a series of joint naval, exercises, cooperation in MDA, information exchange, etc.

• Quad : The recent meetings of officials of India, Japan, Australia and Japan has opened up new possibilities of cooperation. The India press release of 12 November 2017 states clearly that the four countries have agreed “that a free, open prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves the long term interests of all countries in the region and world at large”. The Indian side highlighted India’s Act East Policy is the cornerstone of its engagement in the Indo Pacific region. We expect the concept of Indo-Pacific to evolve further in the near future. In this connection a mention may be made of the visions propounded by the different countries: China’s MSR (Maritime Silk Route), Australia’s two ocean navy, Indonesia’s Indo-Pacific treaty of friendship and cooperation, Myanmar ‘s IPEC (Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor), Japan’s COTS (Conference of the Two Seas), US’ Indo–Pacific and India’s Act East)

• India is building Chabahar port in Iran and port infrastructure in Seychelles and Mauritius. India and Japan are considering an Asia Africa Growth Corridor. These projects are not aimed at any third country. Chabahar port will provide connectivity to Afghanistan which in turn will help build afghan economy, something in which all of us are interested.

• The Africa Asia Growth Corridor (AAGC) is aimed at providing infrastructure and digital connectivity, promote agriculture and agro-processing, disaster management, skill building and people to people contacts. This is an inclusive concept based on the needs of participating countries. It is not a unilateral project. India is not working towards the exploitation of natural resources of any third country. Instead it is hopes to build beneficial trade and commerce linkages with these countries with their participation and help build capacities which would directly benefit these countries.

• India’s approach to maritime cooperation is governed by the adherence to freedom of navigation and flights and respect for international law of the sea. Recently, India settled its maritime boundary with Bangladesh, accepting the verdict of the ICJ, which went in Bangladesh’s favour.

Today India has the necessary technical, military, scientific and political strengths to sustain maritime cooperation with many countries. These are: strong and growing navy, maritime cooperation with a host of countries, scientific and technical capabilities (space sciences, weather forecasting, deep sea mining, hydrography, MDA, shipbuilding, dealing with climate change, HADR, capacity building etc.)

European Union (EU)

We see EU as a valuable partner. We have strong strategic partnerships with some EU countries. Recently we conduct a PASSEX with an Italian naval ship which was participating in Atlantic. Maritime cooperation is important component of these partnerships. The recent summit meetings have given fillip to our relations. Maritime cooperation should be strengthened. India is open to maritime cooperation with European countries through:-

• MDA; we can also engage with the EU in the framework of Critical Maritime Route Wider Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO), virtual Royal Manufacturing Technology Centre (RMTC),
• Counter-terrorism,
• Blue economy,
• Shipping,
• Defence production.

We want to thank the EU for their help in shifting the HRA from 78°E to 65°E in Dec 2015. India is ready to cooperate with the EU on a wide range of maritime security issue. It would be useful if both side could set up A India-EU maritime dialogue on an institutional basis.