Changing Face of Sea Piracy in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region: Examining India’s Role in Maritime Cooperation

Amrita Dey

doi:10.32890/jis.6.2010.7908

Abstract

There is hardly any dispute that the Eastern Indian Ocean like its historical past is once again emerging into a ‘cosmopolitan’ maritime arena underpinned by long stretches of peaceful exchange of commodities, energy and other maritime accessories. It has witnessed a new constellation of ‘inward-looking’ regional powers with a ‘bazaar nexus’ (for mercantile goods and energy supply) with Asian and non-Asian powers. Economically, small and middle powers of this region do share and accommodate all to draw the benefits of a highly globalised ‘closely-knit’ mercantile system. Problems relating to trade hazards—‘maritime mugging,’ ‘sea piracy,’ ‘illegal transfer of arms and ammunition, maritime terrorism, has already been addressed adequately by the collective effort of member nations under the aegis of ASEAN. This goodwill effort in the maritime zone awaits response from the cultural domain as well, which still lacks its frequency and luster of the glorious past. Although loads have been talked about, there has been little in action. The present paper is an attempt to study the community building efforts of ASEAN in connivance with emerging powers like India and China; and efforts at building up an Indian Ocean community as it existed in its past—sans feuds, sans fight—but unhindered exchange of culture and trade

Highlights

From ‘simple adventurers’ to ‘commercial merchants’ and later ‘crude explorers’ groping for new pathways to fortune, the Eastern Indian Ocean centered upon the Bay of Bengal and stretching down to the Malacca Straits, the South China Sea and beyond has represented a unique ‘integrated world’ alluring merchants, mariners, soldiers and poets for time immemorial.Initially, merchants from South and Southeast Asia carried cargos from the ‘Spice Island’ to markets around the Bay of Bengal to entrepots in South India and Sri Lanka
There is hardly any dispute that the Eastern Indian Ocean like its historical past is once again emerging into a ‘cosmopolitan’ maritime arena underpinned by long stretches of peaceful exchange of commodities, energy and other maritime accessories
After 50 years of independence of most of the countries along the Eastern Indian Ocean, we find a renewed attempt at forming an Eastern Indian Ocean community with all its past attributes of an economic, political and amateur cultural entity

Summary

Introduction

From ‘simple adventurers’ to ‘commercial merchants’ and later ‘crude explorers’ groping for new pathways to fortune, the Eastern Indian Ocean centered upon the Bay of Bengal and stretching down to the Malacca Straits, the South China Sea and beyond has represented a unique ‘integrated world’ alluring merchants, mariners, soldiers and poets for time immemorial. Merchants from South and Southeast Asia carried cargos from the ‘Spice Island’ to markets around the Bay of Bengal to entrepots in South India and Sri Lanka These were later trans-shipped in Arab and Persian craft to ports in Persian Gulf, Arabia and the Red Sea. With commodities came cultural and religious influences. The narrow Malacca Straits is one of the world’s busiest sea-lane with over 200 vessels transiting daily It is one of the crucial energy supply lines of economicgiants like China, Japan and India. One scholar had rightly pointed out that “if terrorists were determined to devastate world trade, it would be hard to find a better target than the Malacca Straits where about 50,000 vessels carrying roughly a quarter of the world’s maritime trade pass through every year”. 1

The Malacca Straits

Problems in Combating Maritime Crime

Efforts at Combating Maritime Crime

ASEAN Maritime Cooperation

Findings

CONCLUSION