India’s Maritime Moment has arrived

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India’s Maritime Moment has arrived

India’s decision to hold an open debate on maritime security, during its Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the month of August 2021, was significant   as it underscores that maritime security  has graduated from the periphery to the center of Delhi’s foreign policy priorities.

Today, writes Darshana M Baruah (associate fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, where she heads the Indian Ocean initiative) “maritime security has become a critical pillar of India’s foreign policy engagements, institutionalising a foreign policy shift adopted by the government faced with dramatic developments in its immediate neighbourhood and strategic space. This shift in Delhi’s maritime reckoning underlines both the importance of maritime security in India’s foreign policy engagements as well as the potential of the domain in promoting Delhi’s foreign policy ambitions.”

 

Initiatives to institutionalise maritime initiatives

The government has taken a number of steps to institutionalise its maritime initiatives.

“One of the key steps forward was creating the Indian Ocean division within the Ministry of External Affairs in 2016 allowing Delhi to streamline its efforts with the Indian Ocean islands of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros. While India still has much to do to cement its presence and engagements in the western Indian Ocean, Delhi today fully recognises the importance of the region for its strategic ambitions. India has also done well in formalising ad-hoc roles in the Indian Ocean through agreements such as White Shipping and creating the Information Fusion Centre — a much needed regional platform for the Indian Ocean.

“Through these initiatives, Delhi has slowly but gradually implemented its shift toward a more active maritime foreign policy. These agreements and forums allow India to situate itself as a key regional security provider by investing resources and building capacity to address shared concerns and threats with its partners…….

Leveraging the Indo-Pacific framework: “…….Delhi has also leveraged the Indo-Pacific framework to its advantage…….While the Quad seeks to play a role in providing solutions to regional challenges across different domains, its maritime role will always be a critical factor, whether it be for addressing non-traditional security challenges such as illegal fishing and the climate crisis or in promoting shared interests such as the blue economy. Moreover, the Quad nations remain some of the most critical partners for the Indian Navy, who also come together through Malabar exercises.”

Competition with China: India’s new maritime collaborations, writes Baruah “are also a reflection of the challenges Delhi faces at sea and the unraveling competition with China. Delhi has gradually elevated its long-standing naval exercises with its key partners such as US, France, Japan, Australia, Singapore while forging new ties with European and Southeast and East Asia nations such as Germany, the European Union, Indonesia and South Korea. Further, Delhi’s logistics facilities agreements with France, US, Australia and Japan among others provide the Indian Navy access to facilities in sustaining its presence across the Indo-Pacific.

“Given the strategic location of India’s maritime partners, such agreements provide the Indian Navy access to critical locations such as Guam, La Reunion and Okinawa. These agreements also hold future possibilities for access to and missions from islands such as Diego Garcia, and Cocos Keeling, which, along with its own Andaman and Nicobar Islands, stand to provide critical geographic advantages to Delhi’s anti-submarine warfare and maritime domain awareness missions.”

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