Security cooperation in South Asia

South Asia is witnessing the rise of subregional groupings, that are both based on proximity factor as well as the issues involved.

 Security cooperation in South Asia

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• The story: India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have agreed to work on “four pillars” of security cooperation, as per the August meeting of Deputy-NSAs of the three South Asian countries.
• Four pillars: The four areas covers marine security, human trafficking, counter-terrorism, and cyber security. The meeting was held under the "Colombo Security Conclave", and saw Bangladesh, Seychelles and Mauritius participating as observers.
• Points to note: Before this, there was the NSA (National Security Adviser) Trilateral meeting on Maritime Security in November 2020 in Colombo. This was renamed 'Colombo Security Conclave', and a secretariat was established in the capital city of Sri Lanka (Colombo). This Trilateral framework was established back in 2011. The aim was to forge closer cooperation on maritime and security matters among the three Indian Ocean countries. The initiative is significant in the wake of the current geostrategic dynamic that India shares with Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
• Current geostrategic flows:

1. Sri Lanka - Earlier in 2021, India aired security concerns over China being awarded development projects in an island off Sri Lanka’s northern province, close to India’s southern border. The Maldives’s engagement with members of the India-United States-Japan-Australia grouping, known as the ‘Quad’, has been growing over the last year, especially in the area of defence cooperation.
2. Highlights of latest meeting - The aim was to establish a maritime security mechanism for Indian Ocean Region (IOR) including the Bay of Bengal amid China’s growing presence in the area.
3. With the six countries attending the meeting, the focus areas were expanded and now it covers weapons and human trafficking, countering terrorism and violent extremism, protection of maritime environment, capacity building, transnational crimes including narcotics, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), etc.
4. More cooperation through joint exercises of the navies and coast guards to further strengthen maritime safety and security in IOR.
5. The pollution accidents in the IOR - MV Xpress Pearl, MT New Diamond and MV Wakashio - impacted the marine environment. The members discussed ways of combating the pollution in the waters.
6. Later in 2021, the three observer countries have been invited to be full members at the next NSA level meeting. This meeting will take place in Maldives.

• Importance: The widening of thematic areas of cooperation and expansion of membership to Bangladesh, Mauritius and Seychelles indicate growing convergence among the Indian Ocean Region countries to work together in a common platform and to deepen the spheres of engagement under a regional framework.

1. The coming together of the six Indian Ocean region countries in India’s immediate neighbourhood on a common maritime and security platform is significant in a wider global context as well. It highlights India’s desire to play a leading security role in the neighbourhood.
2. Concerns - The progress of the NSA-level trilateral meeting was affected when Delhi’s ties with Male deteriorated under Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen. Subregional cooperation cannot be insulated from bilateral political relations and, hence, maintaining good bilateral relations with individual countries and responding to the growing aspirations of smaller neighbours would be crucial.

• Subregional: A subregional approach to building security cooperation has been gaining salience in India’s neighbourhood policy in recent years. The revival of the NSA-level trilateral India-Sri Lanka-Maldives dialogue on maritime security cooperation shows it.
• Summary: Both the issue and proximity factor will define what "subregional" would mean. And that is not an easy task.

 

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