India offers to share real-time maritime data: 

India offers to share real-time maritime data: 

Context

• Indian Navy is hosting Navy and Maritime Chiefs of 10 countries of Indian ocean region (IOR) at the first goa maritime conclave (GMC) to identify common threats in the region and evolve a mechanism on how to tackle them.
• India has made an offer to share intelligence of maritime movements in the Indian Ocean in real-time with 10 Indian Ocean littoral States.

About information sharing

• The information to be shared includes movement of commercial traffic as well as intelligence.
• Co-operative system–India already has co-operative arrangements with several countries in the region and this initiative would see that expanding further. For instance, white shipping agreements to share commercial shipping data have been signed with 12 countries and more are in the works.
• This is not so much for conventional military purposes but to deal with non-traditional threats arising at sea,”

Maritime security Challenges faced by India

• China’s growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean
• Threat due to rampant piracy, maritime terrorism, and inter-state tensions.
• The growing importance of maritime resources, sea-lane safety, concentration of economic boom zones along the coasts, has made maritime security more critical than ever.
• India has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Pakistan – Sir Creek and sri lanka Where borders are delimited there also frequent instances of illegal fishing, arrest of fishermen, arms-smuggling, terrorist infiltration, human-smuggling and drug-trafficking takes place
• Militarisation of the Indian Ocean Region.
• The vulnerability of our 7,517 km long coastline.
• Sinking of a naval vessel off Vishakhapatnam and the loss of life of the Navy personnel and seaports in Kolkata receiving a series of intelligence warnings of an attack are few of the recent events that underlines myriad complexities of maritime security.

Need for multi-dimensional maritime strategy

• A robust maritime strategy is one which is multi-dimensional, that takes into consideration aspects of both traditional defence security issues and also covers non-traditional issues such as rising sea levels, oil spill-overs, fishery depletion, piracy and management of living and non-living marine resources.
• India should bolster her naval strength and expand maritime partnerships with other countries through bilateral, trilateral and multilateral means. Naval modernisation, expansion of civilian maritime infrastructure, development of island territories, naval assistance to other countries should be embarked upon.
• Augment the capabilities of marine police, which is one of the first respondents during crises.
• India needs to deepen its military security cooperation in the Indian Ocean with USA, France, Australia and initiate a maritime security dialogue with China.
• Adherence to international laws by all parties as well as through monitoring, regulation and enforcement.

Maritime security strategy 2015

The Indian Maritime Security Strategy 2015, titled ‘Ensuring Secure Seas’ revealed in Oct 2015, some of its highlights are:

Imperatives:

• India’s principal maritime enterprise would be the need to “shape a favourable and positive environment”.
• Towards this end, India would need to constructively involved in multilateral maritime/ military engagement, local capacity building, technical cooperation/ communications etc
• Coastal and offshore security, in light of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai
• Security of the Indian Ocean sea lines of communication,protection of overseas investment and Indians residing abroad

Challenges:

• Acknowledges the blurring of lines between traditional and non-traditional threats
• These may range from terrorism, piracy and organized crime to climate change and natural disasters
• Emphasises the need for greater coordination between different maritime agencies at the same time keeping the actions “holistic and seamless”

Strengths:

• Experience in evacuation of Indian and other nationals from Libya and Yemen
• Successful disaster relief operations,eg: cyclone Hudhud (2014)

Opportunities:

• Navy will be the primary instrument to secure the seas for economic purposes, especially considering India’s unique maritime geography with a central location in the IOR
• Greater indigenisation of maritime platforms can boost “Make in India” push
  

About Goa maritime conclave

The conclave was aimed at “Addressing Regional Maritime Challenges” wherein the deliberations were focused on emerging maritime threats and force structuring, maritime domain awareness, maritime security architecture, and maritime security challenges in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR)

What is white shipping agreement

• White Shipping Agreement (WSA) is an information network protocol that allows the navies of two countries to exchange information about ships in their oceanic territories. Ships would be classified into white (commercial ships), grey (military vessels), and black (illegal vessels)
• It facilitates preventing any potential threat from sea from impinging an coastal and offshore security of the country.
• India and U.S have signed the White Shipping Agreement (WSA) as it establishes an information network protocol that allows the navies of both countries to exchange information about ships in their oceanic territories.
• The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurgaon would be the nodal centre for WSA.