Key naval meeting to focus on Indian Ocean Region security

The naval chiefs of several countries with stakes in the strategic Indian Ocean region will on Tuesday kick off a key conclave in Thailand where they will discuss ways to step up maritime cooperation, address challenges in the vast expanse and strengthen its security architecture, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.

The four-day Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) in Bangkok comes at a time when the region is facing an array of security challenges, including Houthi militia targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea after the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, and the apparent resurgence of piracy, the officials said, declining to be named.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have declared their support for Hamas. Several shipping companies have suspended their operations in the Red Sea following the Houthi attacks.

Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar will take part in the symposium, a voluntary initiative that seeks to enhance maritime cooperation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean region. The IONS grouping consists of 25 member countries and eight observers.

The theme of the IONS’s 8th edition is Blue Economy: Ways Forward for Sustainable Development of IONS Member States. Conceived by the Indian Navy and held biennially, India hosted the maiden edition of IONS in 2008.

IONS seeks to attain mutually beneficial maritime security outcomes in the region through cooperation of all member countries in determining remedies relevant to regional maritime security.

The latest edition comes days after Somali pirates hijacked the Maltese-flagged merchant vessel Ruen carrying a crew of 18. The Indian Navy has deployed its P-8I maritime patrol aircraft and a front-line destroyer with marine commandos onboard to monitor the course of the hijacked vessel headed towards the Somali coast.

The European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Operation Atalanta - the EU maritime security operation in the western Indian Ocean – also swung into action to join the anti-piracy effort.

The Ruen incident has put piracy back in the spotlight. Pirate attacks in the region peaked between 2008 and 2013, but steadily declined thereafter because of concerted efforts by a multinational maritime task force.

The region accounted for almost 700 pirate attacks during 2008-13, but the figure nosedived to a mere 16 during 2014-19, according to EUNAVFOR data. The December 14 Ruen incident was the first in the past three years. The EUNAVFOR numbers cover all attacks by suspected pirates, including the ones repelled, aborted and those leading to ships landing in pirate hands and crews taken hostage.

The Indian Navy has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden for more than 15 years. At any given time, one Indian warship has been carrying out round-the-clock anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since October 23, 2008, to protect Indian seaborne trade, instill confidence in the seafaring community and act as a deterrent for pirates.

So far 107 Indian warships have been deployed in the Gulf of Aden - once considered the world’s most dangerous waters for commercial shipping - to ensure safe passage of India-flagged merchant vessels. They have thwarted scores of piracy attempts and safely escorted thousands of ships with tens of thousands of Indian sailors, as previously reported by HT.

The IONS member countries include India, Australia, the UK, France, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa. The observers include China, Russia, Japan, Italy and Spain.

The Indian Ocean has been in the spotlight amid China’s rising influence in the region where it is setting up military bases, pushing countries to advance its maritime claims, and forcing strategic concessions from vulnerable states.

The Indian Navy is closely monitoring China’s sustained presence in the Indian Ocean region as part of its efforts to keep under surveillance extra-regional forces operating in the vast stretch to assess the activities they are engaged in and their intentions, Admiral Kumar said on December 1.

He drew attention towards the possibility of disputes in the region “getting out of control or getting elevated” to conflict. He also listed piracy, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and drug trafficking as some of the other challenges confronting the region.