MARITIME PARTNERSHIP IN INDIAN OCEAN REGION

The maritime strategic culture of twenty first century has turned towards strategic
cooperation rather than confrontation or competition. The coordinated efforts by the
regional countries to counter common non-traditional maritime security threats at sea,
use of centralized information sharing systems, technological advancements,
confidence through formation of multinational Task Force(such as Task Force 151),
cooperation for sustainable development through Blue Economy, coordinated patrols,
concept of 1000 ship navy - all these have increased confidence, initiative and
understanding among the countries of the region. Today, most of the maritime nations
have individual or interlinking network to recognize the enormous volume of the ships at
sea so as to ensure their safe passage and mark the unconventional or irregular
threats. Such individualistic efforts - blending with a few collaboratives, have enhanced
the level of regional maritime and naval cooperation to a higher standard that have
never been seen before. Under such changing regional maritime security environment,
a true desire of ‘maritime partnership’ has evolved for strengthening maritime
cooperation further and provide a secure regional maritime environment, where every
partner nation have shared responsibilities and mutual benefits.

The objective of the maritime partnership is to ‘leverage willing partners to provide a

secure maritime common by tackling transnational challenges such as piracy, human
trafficking, illegal drug smuggling, environmental degradation, illegal weapons
smuggling’ (Toh, 2018), IUU fishing etc. Presently, such objective is the core persuasion
of Indian Ocean regional countries under the banner of maritime cooperation where
Bangladesh is an active participant.However, present maritime approach of the whole
Indian Ocean region is yet to be aligned for such partnership while the sub-regions are
more involved in cooperative engagements. The regional power dynamics, geopolitical
sensitivities, imbalanced development and national priorities have made such
partnership more challenging and uncertain. Under such environment, Bangladesh
being a firm believer of regional maritime cooperation, is strongly contributing to the

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regional maritime partnership through constant engagements and cooperation so as to
transform it into a norms; leading to the objectives of maritime partnership.

The Indian Ocean region has undergone significant changes in terms of regional
security structure, political and economic cooperation & development. The growing
economic pre-eminence coupled with complex dynamics of regional maritime security
intricacies have caused certain security concerns in the region. Besides, the strategic
location of the Indian ocean along with the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca, Sunda and
Lombok straits- the great pathways for shipping of essential trade and energy have
underscored the energy security as the most critical issue for today’s maritime
copartners. The rise of ocean communities and diversified non-military threats such as
illegal arms smuggling, drug trafficking, armed robbery, network of human trafficking
and piracy in the maritime domain have complicated the maritime scenario.

In non-traditional security parlance, the issue of climate change coupled with natural
calamities are becoming worrisome particularly for the developing countries like
Bangladesh. The unwarranted sea-level rise may pose serious threat in the availability
of food, water, health & shelter. It’s also a matter of great concern that the Indian Ocean
has been declared a dead zone covering an area of more than 23,000 square miles in
the Bay of Bengal (Winter, 2016). The scientists have uncovered worrying evidence that
the area lacks in oxygen and cannot support marine life. There has also been huge
degradation of mangrove and coral in the Bay of Bengal region. In regard to maritime
pollution and acidification, the average concentration of nickel exceeded its {ERL (20.9
μg·g-1)} value and the incidence of adverse effects on biological components exceeded
16.7% (Towhida Rashid, 2015). With present maritime threat scenario, its well
understood that in the near future, various maritime security threats will continue to
confront maritime services and secured maritime environment in these region is going
to be more challenging than ever before. Under such multifarious threats, the regional
maritime partnership initiative may be a meaningful operational solution to harness the
collective capabilities of the regional maritime services to provide a secure maritime
environment.

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To maintain stability and security in the region, nations are interested and attached to
multilateral approach with cooperative engagements.Unfortunately, there has been
limited and slow progress in building a ‘strong grouping around the Indian Ocean’ in
terms of either a collective security mechanism or strengthening regional cooperation
(Choudhury, 2018).There is no effective ocean-based regional organization except
IORA which is a ‘permanent’ inter-governmental organisation with 21-Members and 7
Dialogue partners. However, in regard to effective regional maritime cooperation and on
ground strategic action plan implementation, this organization needs to be strengthen its
partnership and be more effective on regional maritime issues. Besides, there are
number of sub-regional organizations such as SAARC, GCC, BIMSTEC, SADC and
ASEAN with limited effectiveness, roles and mandates. However, a few small scale
cooperation and initiative such as Malacca Strait Patrol (MSP), Regional Cooperation
Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (RECAAP)
have earned moderate success specially in South East Asia. In South Asia, effective
multinational cooperative engagements even among regional countries and information
sharing dates behind which needs serious attention. Though there are small scale
bilateral initiative such as coordinated patrols (CORPAT), Goodwill visits, dialogue,
symposium, bilateral exercises etc. There still lacks in real time information sharing and
networking while South East Asian countries has advanced a lot in this regard.