Indian Navy: Challenges Ahead

VENUGOPAL MENON points out the impediments for India to be a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region and suggests how these can be overcome

- Venugopal Menon

The sea lanes of the Indian Ocean are considered among the most strategically important in the world, with more than 80 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade transiting through the ocean and its choke points. The Indian Ocean region faces many safety and security challenges including piracy, armed robberies at sea, terrorism, human trafficking, drugs trafficking, illicit trafficking in wildlife, trafficking of weapons, crimes in the fisheries sector, and so on. In addition, the region is prone to natural maritime hazards such as tsunamis, cyclones and floods. It is also an area of conflict, some of which are local in nature and some others that have global significances and attract foreign military interference. During the Cold War period, a security balance was maintained in the region, which dissipated with the end of the Cold War. The post-Cold War era saw the region becoming increasingly unstable, with competing interests between countries, mutual suspicion and outright rivalry. As a result, the region’s maritime security challenges are now considerable and affected by key variables such as militarisation within the region, involvement of extra regional powers and non-traditional security threats.

Importance of India