By Eranda Wanigasekara
The trilateral maritime security dialogue between India, Maldives and Sri Lanka revived after a break of six years, at the end of 2020.1 India’s representative, the National Security Advisor MrAjit Doval along with the Maldivian defence minister Mariya Didi went to Sri Lanka to attend the meeting with Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Major General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne. The conclave that was initiated by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2011 during his term as Defence Secretary was designed to function as a stage for trilateral maritime security cooperation between India, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Over the years, despite a few setbacks, it has gathered momentum and has aimed at ensuring quick deliverables through synchronized actions. The recent meet was the fourth version of the trilateral forum with the last meeting held in March 2014 in New Delhi, which was hosted by the former NSAShivshankar Menon. Earlier, the preceding Maldives government under Abdulla Yameen had downgraded relations between Male and New Delhi thus, breaking the momentum of this regional initiative. However, last year, soon after the NSA Trilateral consultation on Maritime Securityin Colombo, this grouping was rephrased as the `Colombo Security Conclave’ with a Secretariat established in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka.
The three areas of activities that this conclave essentially focuses on, agreed upon in its 2013 meeting are – maritime domain awareness, training and capacity building, and joint actions with trilateral exercises & cooperation in legal and policy matters linked to piracy. The previous meetings also deliberated on expanding the horizons of cooperation to include “hydrography; training through visits, search and seizure operations; training onboard Indian sail training ships; exchanges between think- tanks; and joint participation in adventure activities.” In a recent virtual follow-up meeting of top security officials at the level of the Deputy National Security Adviser, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have reiterated to work together on the four pillars of security cooperation encompassing the areas of marine security, human trafficking, counterterrorism, and cyber-security. This follows up took place just nine months after the National Security Adviser level deliberations in which the three countries had agreed to enlarge the scope of their intelligence-sharing mechanisms.
This ‘Colombo Security Conclave’ among the three neighbouring countries is an endeavour to promote maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region. The Conclave already has plans to widen the scope of its operations to include Mauritius and Seychelles who had been invited to the 2014 meeting as observers, with intentions to incorporate them as full participants in due course. In the meeting held last year, Mauritius and Seychelles with the addition of Bangladesh did take part as observers, attending the sessions virtually owing to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic. They are expected to become full members later this year in the next meeting of the Conclave scheduled to be held in Male.
This initiative that is based on military and security collaboration has immense significance in a region that is currently dynamic and geopolitically extremely strategic.
Each of the countries also have their own equation with other regional and global powers which impact their relations with each other. For instance, India has already expressed its security concerns to Sri Lanka over China engaging in so called development ventures close to India’s southern border in an island off Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. On a positive note, the Maldives’ has been engaging with members of the India-United States-Japan-Australia grouping, known as the ‘Quad’, particularly in the area of defence cooperation. The Ibrahim Mohamed Solih government last year signed a ‘Framework for aDefence and Security Relationship’ with the United States, an initiative that India readily supported. In 2020, the Maldives e v e n got a Japanese grant of $7.6 million for the MaldivianCoast Guard and to establish a Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre.
The NSA-level talks are also a demonstration of the Indian resolve to push sub-regional diplomacy, which has been a powerful instrument in India’s foreign policy. The Indian government has utilized such forums as a valuable form of engagement following the standstill in regional diplomacy under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). As part of the Colombo Security Conclave, the heads of the delegation agreed that they would regularly meet to uphold the thrust of the dialogue and to ensure the timely implementation of the decisions taken at these NSA-level consultations. The deputy NSA-level working group meetings have also been instituted as a biannual affair to enable cooperation at the operational level. Sri Lanka hosted the first Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) level Meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave virtually on 4 August 2021.
In fact, several iterations of the trilateral meetings at the NSA-level draw from the IndiaMaldives “DOSTI” joint coast guard exercise that took place in 2012 to which Sri Lanka was subsequently added. The India-Maldives DOSTI exercises have been successfully going on since 1991 and are intendedat firming capabilities of the partner countries in the area of search and rescue actions, combating piracy and armed robbery, damage control, and casualty evacuation at sea. India and Sri Lanka also have their own bilateral naval exercises called SLINEX which has been going on since 2005. In fact, the “seamless coordination” between the two countries was at display at the East Coast of Sri Lanka when the two navies came together in September 2020 to support MT New Diamond, a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) that caught fire causing immense losses and damage to local livelihoods and the environment.
In the course of the Colombo Security Conclave, all members had articulated a desire to conjoin maritime safety and security efforts through joint exercises involving their respective countries navies and coast guard forces. Sri Lanka and the Maldives had expressed hope to gain from India’s expertise and aid on maritime security issues, and the Indian side assured them of their sustained support. Collaboration between the three neighbouring countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has thus been growing exponentially in harmony with India’s strategy of ‘Neighbourhood First’ and in realization of India’s pledge of Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR).
With a coastline of over 7,500 km, India has a natural interest in engaging in maritime security operations with its neighbours. Movement in the Indian Ocean region constitutes nearly 75 per cent of the world’s maritime trade and 50 per cent of daily global oil consumption. India’s Security and Growth for All (SAGAR) policy, proposes an integrated regional framework to not only meet such an objective in the Indian Ocean region but also serve as an alternative to China’s string of pearls tactic that tends to weaken smaller states with debt diplomacy in an effort to exercise regional dominance. India’s recent decision to organise an open debate in the UN Security Council (UNSC) on enhancing maritime security, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 9 also reflects India’s global position as a responsible maritime nation. The objective of the ‘Colombo Security Conclave’ is an extension of this endeavour to have effective regional maritime cooperation to respond collectively and holistically to natural and manmade threats to maritime security taking along like-minded neighbours.
The broadening of collaboration efforts and the enlargement of the Conclave’s scope to include Bangladesh, Mauritius and Seychelles also reflects increasing convergence among Indian Ocean region countries to come together on a shared platform and profess a regional agenda. 6 Transnational crimes such as illegitimate narcotics, piracy, wildlife smuggling, illegal fishing, terrorism, human trafficking are issues that affect the entire region.9 All the member countries realise that neither the security concerns nor the resolutions are exclusive to a single country, and the region collectively needs to put its efforts together for accomplishing a consistent and effective security support system that transcends national and maritime boundaries.