Shringla seeks greater security, trade ties in Indian Ocean region
NEW DELHI: Countries in the Indian Ocean region need a new cooperative architecture for their common maritime space to ensure both security and free trade, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said on Monday.
The Covid-19 pandemic and new threats have highlighted the need to work together and come up with common solutions, and India stands ready to do its share to tackle these issues, he said while speaking at the Goa Maritime Conclave on the theme “Maritime security and emerging non-traditional threats: A case for proactive role for IOR navies”.
Harsh Shringla noted that the prosperity and well-being of people of countries in the region are built on a foundation of law-and-order and security, and said, “A new cooperative architecture for our common maritime space that ensures security for its inhabitants, driven by our realities, and our aspirations to lead better lives, is necessary to grasp this opportunity.”
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While security in the context of foreign policy was traditionally associated with countering external security threats, countries in the region are now having to contend with non-traditional and sub-conventional threats that require new solutions, he said.
“We now operate on the basis of an expanded concept of human security that takes a broader view,” he said.
Navies, coast guard forces and maritime security agencies of the region need to do more together since all problems that will arise cannot be anticipated, he added.
“India stands ready and willing to do its share – and more – in tackling these problems,” Shringla said.
The Indian Ocean region’s countries can work on strengthening structures, understandings, procedures and resources so that they better manage problems. “It will also enable us to create a surge capacity to deal with the unknown,” he said.
The pandemic has led to a rebalancing that has resulted in a dispersal of capacities, including for Indian Ocean nations. “Every one of us present here have a growing ability to come up with common solutions to common problems. That means we are able to do more together,” he added.
Referring to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, Harsh Shringla said countries were in the process of devising new solutions.
“We are in the process of devising a new set of measures and arrangements that reflect this understanding of security. They are based less on the traditional concept of a military alliance and more on a cooperative approach, on prevention, on sharing of information, and, on promoting inter-operability across state borders,” he said.
Many of these cooperative activities are in the areas of policing and law enforcement, and more appropriate to the “newer and rapidly evolving threat matrix”, he noted.