ENHANCING MARITIME COOPERATION AMONG THE LITTORAL STATES IN THE BAY OF BENGAL REGION (BBR)

Abstract

As over 80% of the world’s trade, at present, is carried by sea, maritime safety
and security are prime areas of concern for almost all the littoral states. India,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in the
Bay of Bengal Region are no exception. There are vast dissimilarities among
the littoral states in terms of size, extent, geography as well as have varying
degrees of preparedness and abilities to overcome the trans-national nature of
the vulnerabilities of the Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs), oil rigs and
offshore assets, mitigating the challenges like surveillance capabilities, maritime
domain awareness, intelligence sharing and identification at sea problems, Search
and Rescue (SAR), disaster mitigation and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster
Relief (HADR) as well as the threats like piracy, armed robbery at sea, maritime
terrorism, drugs and arms smuggling. The descriptive and exploratory method of
the research also involved an analysis of the existing regional maritime cooperative
mechanisms, a few case studies from other regions and the efficacy of extant
regional linkages like SAARC, BIMSTEC and IONS for maritime cooperation.
The implicit inference emerges that the regional cooperation is an immediate
necessity to myriad issues in the maritime domain, which transcend the limits of
national jurisdiction but are not global in scope. A pragmatic approach should,
therefore, be adopted for a robust and effective regional maritime cooperative
mechanism at strategic, operational as well as tactical levels. The recommended
measures include a formal cooperative agreement, guidelines for hot pursuit
into each other’s territorial waters, setting up of coastal radar chains, fitment
of Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Long Range Identification and
Tracking (LRIT) both ashore and afloat, personal identification measures, sharing
of filtered maritime domain awareness and intelligence data, structured as well
as opportune coordinated patrols, cooperation in the fields of SAR, disaster
mitigation and HADR, which would help reduce the mutual vulnerabilities as
well as overcome the challenges and the threats whilst concurrently according
due respect for each other’s sovereignty. Regional cooperative linkage like Bay
of Bengal – Maritime Cooperative Agreement (BBR - MCA) must necessarily
be accorded due priority in the emerging regional maritime realm to protect
national interests of the littoral states through collective and cooperative safety
and security mechanisms.