Maritime Security

Maritime security comprises a collection of all the issues that pertain to the seas, and have a bearing on national security. These include, inter-alia, seaborne trade and infrastructure for its pursuit, management of sea resources, environmental issues and employment of naval forces.

Recent Developments

Silver Jubilee Commemoration Ceremony of SIMBEX- 2018

  • Silver Jubilee Commemoration Ceremony to mark the 25th edition of SIMBEX, “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” was held onboard INS Sahyadri at Visakhapatnam on 19 November.
  • To mark the historic occasion and as a symbol of growing trust and comfort levels between the two navies, a special Logo was also released. The occasion was also utilised to simultaneous release of Special Postal Cover and Singaporean Postage Stamp on SIMBEX.
  • SIMBEX is the longest un-interrupted bilateral maritime exercise that India has had with any navy.

India–Japan Maritime Cooperation

  • India and Japan were successful in pushing the spatial constructs such as the ‘Indo-Pacific’ into the discourses on international politics.
  • Japan and India also share similar strategic objectives, which include the creation of a robust multi power Asian order and thriving open sea lanes of communication in the region.
  • During the recent bilateral summit in November 2018, both countries agreed to scale up cooperation on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), decided to develop the smart islands, initiated a 2+2 dialogue involving foreign/defence ministers and commenced negotiations on Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA).

Multilateral Air Encounter Code

Several countries including the United States and China agreed in principle to multilateral guidelines to manage unexpected encounters between their military aircraft, joining 10 Southeast Asian nations already in the pact.

  • The world’s two biggest economies as well as Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea tentatively joined the agreement, which was initially adopted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
  • The voluntary, non-binding guidelines build on an existing code to manage sea encounters adopted by all 18 countries last year, which was designed to mitigate risks following a boom in the region’s maritime and air traffic in recent years.
  • The air code has been hailed as the first multilateral deal of its kind, although such arrangements exist at bilateral levels.
  • The U.S. and China, for instance, in 2015 signed a pact on a military hotline and rules governing air-to-air encounters.

Indian Ocean Conference

  • The 3rd Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) was held in Hanoi on August 27, 2018 drawing nearly 300 delegates from 40 countries. The two-day event, themed “Building Regional Architecture,” focused on emerging regional architecture and promoting cooperation between stakeholder countries in the region in building trust, respecting international law and settling disputes in a peaceful manner, as well as maritime management and handling non-traditional threats.
  • In this, India opposed to the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, as it includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which transverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
  • China has stepped up activities in the Indian Ocean as it is building ports and other infrastructure in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
  • The Indian Ocean Conference initiated by India Foundation along with its partners from Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Earlier editions of the Conference had been hosted in 2016 and 2017 in Singapore and Sri Lanka respectively.

Concepts of Maritime Security

  • This is a term which connotes different things to different navies. While some perceive maritime security in a narrow sense as measures for force-protection and defense against sabotage, others include actions to combat terrorism and illegal activities like piracy and trafficking; still others expand it to embrace the protection of territorial waters and sea lanes.
  • Adopting an inclusive approach, India define maritime security as; comprising a collection of all the issues that pertain to the seas, and have a bearing on national security. These include, inter-alia, seaborne trade and infrastructure for its pursuit, management of sea resources, environmental issues and employment of naval forces.

Key Determinants for Shaping the Maritime Security Strategy

The key determinants for shaping the maritime security strategy cover broader maritime strategic imperatives and more specific maritime security drivers. These are, both, important influences in shaping the overall strategy, and also govern the determination of India’s areas of maritime interest.

The revised strategy has, accorded increased focus on the following:-

  • The safety and security of seaborne trade and energy routes, especially in the IOR, considering their effect on global economies and India’s national interests.
  • The importance of maintaining freedom of navigation and strengthening the international legal regime at sea, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), for all-round benefit.
  • The considerable scope and value in undertaking cooperation and coordination between various navies, to counter common threats at sea.

India’s Maritime Security - Aim and Objectives

India’s maritime security aim is to safeguard national maritime interests at all times.

India’s maritime security objectives, flowing from the above aim, are:-

  • To deter conflict and coercion against India.
  • To conduct maritime military operations in a manner that enables early termination of conflict on terms favourable to India.
  • To shape a favourable and positive maritime environment, for enhancing net security in India’s areas of maritime interest.
  • To protect Indian coastal and offshore assets against attacks and threats emanating from or at sea.

Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy

The maritime security strategy is, in effect, a combination of five constituent strategies for attaining corresponding maritime security objectives. Each strategy employs a combination of various doctrinal roles of the Navy, viz. military, diplomatic, constabulary and benign, with their associated objectives, missions and tasks. The various constituents of the strategy describe the range of coordinated and synergized efforts, to maintain and strengthen India’s maritime security.

Indian Maritime Security Strategy

Strategy for Deterrence: Prevention of conflict and coercion against India is the primary purpose of India’s armed forces. The Indian Navy contributed to national deterrence at nuclear and conventional levels, by strengthening the credibility of its military capability, readiness posture and communication of intent. The strategy progressed through development of appropriate force structures and capabilities, conduct of threat assessment and contingency planning, maintenance of strategic situational awareness, maintenance of preparedness and presence, and effective strategic communication.

Strategy for Conflict: The strategy is based on the principles of war, with application of force and focus on strategic effect as additional operational principles. It employs MDA, networked operations, preparedness, jointness and coordination, and operational tempo, as the main operational enablers. The strategy is centered on various operational actions, which include maritime manoeuvre, maritime strike, sea control, sea denial, SLOC interdiction, SLOC protection, coastal and offshore defence, information warfare, and escalation management.

Strategy for Maritime Force and Capability Development: This strategy describes the ways to develop and maintain a combat ready, technology driven, network enabled navy, capable of meeting India’s maritime security needs into the future.

Strategy for Coastal and Offshore Security: This strategy describes the ways by which the cooperative framework and coordinative mechanisms for coastal and offshore security will be strengthened and developed, against threat of sub-conventional armed attack and infiltration from the sea. It articulates the coastal and offshore security framework, measures for development of coastal MDA and coastal community participation, mechanisms for coordinating interagency presence, patrol and operational response, cooperative capability development, and focus areas for supporting maritime governance.

Areas of Maritime Interest

Based on their relative degree of impact on India’s maritime interests, the areas have been categorised as primary and secondary areas of interest.

Primary Areas: India’s primary areas of maritime interest includes the following:-

  • India’s coastal areas and maritime zones, including coastline, islands, internal sea waters, territorial waters, contiguous zone, EEZ and continental shelf.
  • The Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, and their littoral regions.
  • The Persian Gulf and its littoral, which is the source of majority of our oil supplies and gas imports, and is home to more than seven million expatriate Indians.
  • The Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, and their littoral regions.
  • South-West Indian Ocean, including IOR island nations therein and East Coast of Africa littoral regions.
  • The choke points leading to, from and across the Indian Ocean, including the Sixdegree Channel; Eight/ Nine-degree Channels; Straits of Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandeb, Malacca, Singapore, Sunda and Lombok; the Mozambique Channel, and Cape of Good Hope and their littoral regions.
  • Other areas encompassing our SLOCs, and vital energy and resource interests.

Secondary Areas: India’s secondary areas of maritime interest include the following:-

  • South-East Indian Ocean, including sea routes to the Pacific Ocean and littoral regions in vicinity.
  • South and East China Seas, Western Pacific Ocean, and their littoral regions.
  • Southern Indian Ocean Region, including Antarctica.
  • Mediterranean Sea, West Coast of Africa, and their littoral regions.
  • Other areas of national interest based on considerations of Indian diaspora, overseas investments and political relations

Agencies for Coordinated Patrol

  • State Marine Police: Responsible for patrolling inner layer from coastline upto territorial waters, in coordination with Customs, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and respective port authorities, as relevant.
  • Indian Coast Guard: Patrols maritime zones of India, and supports State Marine Police within inner layer as required.
  • Indian Navy: Supports Indian Coast Guard within maritime zones as required, and provides presence, including surveillance and patrol, on high seas beyond EEZ. Also undertakes patrolling in ODA, and its Sagar Prahari Bal (SPB) specialised force undertakes patrolling of naval harbours.

Maritime Terrorism

In recent decades, there been an expansion of this threat from land to sea, and from sea further onto land, aimed at multiple targets located off or near the coast. The targets may include conventional military and soft non-military assets, such as commercial and population centers, industrial centers, ports, ships, tourist centers, iconic structures, and strategic infrastructure like offshore oil production installations and nuclear power plants. Maritime terrorism has evolved from indirect to direct actions from and at sea, and remains active in our maritime security environment.

  • From the Sea: Movement of arms, explosives and terrorists by sea, for subsequently or directly conducting terrorist attacks ashore. India has faced terrorism from the sea in both these ways. In 1993, the seas were used to smuggle explosives for subsequently conducting terrorist attacks in Mumbai. In 2008, this graduated to terrorists emerging from the sea to carry out direct attacks on landing ashore.
  • At Sea: Conducting attacks against ships at sea. These used explosives and small craft in the early 2000s, which has recently graduated to direct weapons and rocket attacks against ships from ashore. There were also attempted hijackings of naval ships in our neighbourhood in 2014. This represents a new genre of threat, wherein radicalized or vulnerable state forces may be commandeered by terrorists to launch semi-conventional attacks against other nations and populace.

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