Indian Ocean nations promote rules-based order as PRC seeks to expand presence

Mandeep Singh

Building multinational, collaborative frameworks to mitigate shared security concerns in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) was the overarching goal of defense and security officials at the fourth biennial Goa Maritime Conclave in late October 2023.

The three-day event, hosted by India’s Naval War College in the country’s southwestern state of Goa, included participants from Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It was conducted against a backdrop of heightened concerns over an increasingly assertive People’s Republic of China (PRC), which has stepped up its presence in the IOR.

“A free, open and rule-based maritime order is a priority for all of us,” Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in his keynote address. “‘Might is right’ has no place in such a maritime order.”

Singh emphasized the need for cooperative commitment to the rule of law and “legitimate maritime rules of engagement” to preserve regional security and prosperity. “Fair rules of engagement are crucial for fostering collaboration and ensuring that no single country dominates others in a hegemonic manner,” he said.

Beijing’s fundamental goal in the IOR is to confront other nations, notably India, in order to create a new order with littoral countries and establish the PRC as the dominant force, Dr. S.D. Pradhan, former chairman of the Indian government’s Joint Intelligence Committee, wrote in the Times of India newspaper in October 2023.

In his conclave address, Indian Navy chief Adm. Hari Kumar proposed four principles for deepening cooperation among IOR nations, including establishing mechanisms for compliance with international maritime law, developing protocols for training and capacity building, and opening regional centers of excellence.

The centers would be hubs for maritime security information, Kumar said, and could mirror the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram, India. Established in 2018, the center facilitates cooperation and expertise development on challenges such as maritime terrorism, piracy and armed robbery, human and contraband trafficking, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Singh said IUU fishing threatens food security and ocean ecosystems: “A multinational collaborative effort for compilation and sharing of surveillance data is the need of the hour.”

PRC-flagged vessels are the world’s leading perpetrators of IUU fishing, according to the Australian National University’s National Security College, with an increasing presence of large Chinese trawlers in the IOR.

Mauritian Police Commissioner Anil Kumarsing Dip identified a recent surge in illegal drug trafficking through IOR sea routes as another maritime threat. “With huge profit margins, drug trafficking is, by far, the most lucrative means of generating funds to fuel ever-growing terrorist activities and insurgencies around the region,” he said at the Goa event.

Singh identified forums such as the conclave and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) as avenues for building trust and cooperation and mitigating risks. He also referenced BIMSTEC defense exercises conducted by the group’s members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — in 2018 and 2021.

Singh said a collaborative framework also is needed to tackle climate change, which could involve IOR countries cooperating to cut carbon emissions, migrate to sustainable practices, and invest in the green economy through technology and capital transfers.

Mandeep Singh is a FORUM contributor reporting from New Delhi, India.