Two Hurdles on India’s Maritime Role in IOR

News Highlights 

India’s  maritime role increases in Indian Ocean Region as India engage in various regional initiatives like Maritime Surveillance Initiative , Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre ­Indian Ocean Region (IFC­IOR) , Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center ,  European Led mission in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH)

Twin Trouble Face by India to Achieve Potential 

• Infrastructure constraints 
  • Despite rising interest from other countries to post International Liaison Officers at the IFC-IOR, the Centre is unable to do so due to infrastructure issues.
  • The extension has been awaiting approval from the Defence Ministry for two years.
•  Delay in posting Indian liaison officers at centres in the region
  • Posting Indian Liaison Officers at other facilities in other countries is also critical, but such posts are currently experiencing significant delays.
  • For a long time, proposals to station Indian naval Liaison Officer at the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar, the Regional Coordination Operations Centre in Seychelles, and the European-led mission in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) in Abu Dhabi have been pending.

Need to Address The Challenges 

• In the light of China’s growing naval presence in the region, the sphere of information exchange for MDA has dramatically expanded among the QUAD countries and other littoral states.
• Posting ILOs are important because they bring local experience and help to improve collaboration and cooperation with other organizations in their home countries.
• It is critical that neighbouring countries join India’s information-sharing framework because it strengthens India’s strategic position and shows the world that these countries are aligned with India for their security needs.
• The IFC-overall IOR’s links with the other IFCs will eventually help the IFC-IOR become the database for all maritime information in the IOR.

Significance of International Liaison Officers (ILO) at India’s Fusion Centre

•  Value addition
  • ILOs offer local experience to the table that Indian officials may not be aware of and that cannot be determined from here.
  • It also aids in the development of relationships with various agencies in their home countries.
• Joining India’s framework for information sharing is a strategic move
  • Joining India’s information-sharing framework is a strategic declaration that these countries are aligned with India in terms of their security needs.
•  Good Maritime Picture
  • The IFC-IOR will be linked to the other IFCs and eventually become the repository for all maritime data in the IOR if ILOs join the Indian Fusion Centre and vice versa.
  • The advantages of a maritime picture are numerous: it will allow for the tracking of dark shipping and other tactical-level activities like rendezvous at sea, it will improve partners’ ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events, and it will protect their fisheries, which are critical to many Indo-Pacific economies.

Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)

• IFC-IOR is an Indian Navy programme that was formed by the Indian government in Gurugram in 2018.
• The goal of the IFC-IOR is to improve Maritime Safety and Security in the Indian Ocean Region.
• In light of the region’s importance in terms of global trade and security, the IFC-IOR intends to address the need to promote collaboration for maritime safety and security.
• International Liaison Officers (ILOs) from partner nations are hosted at the Centre. At the moment, IFC has 21 partner countries and 22 multi-national agencies.

Significance of  Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)

• Maritime Security
  • The IOR is critical to global trade and many countries’ economic prosperity.
  • The IOR is home to more than 75 percent of worldwide maritime traffic and 50 percent of global oil consumption.
  • Marine terrorism, piracy, trafficking, IUUF, arms trafficking, and poaching, on the other hand, pose numerous threats to the region’s maritime safety and security.
• Illegal  and unregulated fishing
  • The problem is considered as posing a greater threat to maritime governments than international piracy.
  • This is due to the fact that they deplete stocks and rob weak area economies of a vital food source.
  • Illegal and unregulated fishing also infringes on sovereign rights, undermines the rule of law, and deprives coastal states of an important economic resource.
• Part of SAGAR Initiative
  • The centre was formed as part of the government’s SAGAR framework for Indian Ocean marine cooperation.
  • The Singapore Navy’s Information Fusion Centre and the Australia-sponsored Pacific Fusion Centre are two data fusion centres that are expected to be involved in this endeavour.

Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC)

• The RMFIC operates under the auspices of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), of which India, Japan, and the United Nations become Observers in March 2020.
• Its headquarters are in Madagascar.
• Its goal is to improve maritime domain awareness by tracking maritime activity and encouraging information sharing and exchange.

Maritime Choke Points of Indian Ocean Region

Content Source : The Hindu