Strategic Initiation of Third Line of Defence & High Risk Area Delimitation, Restore 65 East Longitude
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FORUM FOR INTEGRATED NATIONAL SECURITY Initiate Interact Influence STRATEGIC INITIATION OF THIRD LINE OF DEFENCE & HIGH RISK AREA DELIMITATION, RESTORE 65 EAST LONGITUDE THINKERS’ MEET REPORT July 11, 2015 www.�insindia.org 2015 FINS Thinkers’ Meet Forum for Integrated National Security finsindia.org 7/11/2015 President’s Message In the 21st century, anybody who rules the sea and space will rule the world. Fortunately, we have sea lanes too vital to be ignored. Indian Ocean is the only ocean in the world which has been named after a country. We don’t claim it as ours only. But we cannot ignore this geographical fact as well. Therefore, when we say maritime security and/or ocean security, our stakes are bound to be higher and it is going to increase day by day. When we take the philosophy of world governance in the 21st century, sea will hold the key and you cannot say only the coast guard, navy or maritime police will do the job. It will be the combined responsibility of all stakeholders. There is a convergence of security, commerce, influence and national interests. Hence, developments in maritime scenario are concern for all of us. But concern must transform into dominance and dominance needs power. You cannot dominate an area unless you are powerful. Our area of immediate concern may be up to Karachi. It may be up to the Straits of Malacca. But our area of influence will go right up to the Suez Canal in the west and stretch on the east. It will go into Pacific. Then comes area of interests, which can go up to South China Sea and up to Mediterranean. As the nation progresses further, as we excel ourselves in the world our area of interests keep on increasing. In maritime perspective, there are seven check points in the world and five are in India’s vicinity. Geography has been very kind to us. It is geography which is important to us. It will give us in time to come the desire to build capacity. Capacity building takes time. Once your capacities are built up, your ability goes up and due to increase in capacity, you become more powerful and the world starts looking at you with respect. Lt Gen (Dr) D B Shekatkar (Retd) President, Forum for Integrated National Security 2 Forum For Integrated National Security | finsindia.org About FINS There is a misleading assumption that national security is a domain strictly for the Governments, Police and Military. In a democratic setup like ours, national security should be concern of each and every citizen. In this framework, we can’t and should not have at least one liberty - to say that government will take care of everything. Vibrant and consciously thinking society acting in unison for betterment of the nation is the criteria for a strong and secure democratic nation. We may have our differences in political thinking. But when it comes to national security and national interests, all our differences must fade away. We have collective responsibility towards challenges that nation faces. In this sense, a secure nationhood can be achieved only if our every citizen is safe and well informed on matters of national interests. Yes, Government has a decisive role to secure the nation, but we can help in making that security setup more robust and effective. And when we look at the future challenges presented by Information Age, role of every citizen becomes extremely significant & citizen’s participation is a must! We should no longer say that our Raksha Mantri and our armed forces will take care of everything. We must contribute in their efforts. We can support them in their decisions, taken in national interests. Thinkers’ Meet is one such example of how people from all walks of national life can come together to discuss our national concerns, ideas and solutions. FINS shall make all possible efforts, so that such ideas and concerns reach desired authorities. Adv. Bal Desai Secretary – General Forum for Integrated National Security 3 Forum For Integrated National Security | finsindia.org About Third Line of Defence & PMSC It does not look like, navies world over would have the required wherewithal or if I may say the other way round, why should Navy get into something which can be outsourced. In fact, there has to be a proper mechanism in place. Only if we have the ability and only if we have the control mechanism, then only this is advisable, otherwise it will be a serious challenge and as someone mentioned when we are so vulnerable to all kind of basic security – we have the coast guard, we have the marine police and still some people are able to reach our shores being unnoticed. Then if we do not have proper framework to monitor these floating armouries or PMSC probably they could be even bigger risk to us. If we have all that only then the PMSC are good to look at. Our first task will be to develop effective regulatory framework for easy, efficient and economical operability. Not only in India but we will have to make sure that we lobby with the international watchdogs and the agencies like IMO and United Nations for proper international regulations for this. Not just because it is in our territorial waters or shores and we are facing the heat. It should be international regulation, which governs all these PMSC. So I think that is also essential if we are to really push this and look at the options. As far as SOP, standard operating procedures will have to be revisited. I am sure that it is an ongoing process and people keep doing that. There is always new incident and new learning and the operating procedures are revisited on those lines. The relatives cost to trade at this point of time may be something very small, may not be significant but I think we have to agree to the fact that human life is even more precious – probably it cannot be quantified and it is priceless. So the loss of trade and loss of economy may be insignificant but the loss of life and the trauma that people undergo with these kinds of incidents is too difficult to be ignored. Shri Atul Kulkarni Convenor, Maritime Security Study Group Forum for Integrated National Security 4 Forum For Integrated National Security | finsindia.org About FINS Maritime Study Group Historically, for last two hundred years, no nation held power without strong maritime capabilities. For long duration, national power was equalled to maritime power. In fact, empires were built upon blue water. 1014 CE – 1045 CE Hindu King Rajendra Chola with his fleet of ships invaded and ruled Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and SE Asia. Realisation of Navy power thereafter saw a decline resulting in biggest ever strategic mistake where Bharat buckled under constant wave of attacks. Maritime Security in fact means the strength of our existence now. In time, world has seen sea change in power game. But one constant remains – Indian Ocean. In this entire power game, Indian Ocean has been the game changer. No power was in position to ignore this fact. Unfortunately, we ignored it for long. Correction of course needs to be affected without delay. In this context, maritime security study is critical to FINS. We look at this subject with three dimensional approaches - Strategic Security Interests, Geopolitical Interests and National Economic interests. As we see that in coming time, our strength and capability at sea will be definitive factor in our growth and strategic dealing. Beyond all this, India has a leading role in maintaining good governance at sea as a signatory to various IMO conventions. Capt Sanjay Prashar Co-Convenor, Maritime Study Group Forum for Integrated National Security 5 Forum For Integrated National Security | finsindia.org INDEX Background…………………………………………………………………………………… 7 Floating Armouries - India’s 3rd Line Of Defence…………………………….. 8 Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………… 10 High Risk Area (HRA) Delimitation, Restore East Longitude………. 12 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..65˚ 13 Experts View Floating Armouries - India’s 3rd Line Of Defence Shri Atul Kulkarni………………………………………………………………………….. 15 Dr. Bimal Patel……………………………………………………………………………….. 18 Capt Alok Kumar……………………………………………………………………………. 29 Vice Admiral S N Wadgaokar (Retd)……………………………………………….. 33 High Risk Area (HRA) Delimitation, Restore 65˚ East Longitude Comdt NV Ramarao………………………………………………………………………... 36 Shri Subba Rao………………………………………………………………………………. 41 Capt Harish Khatri ………………………………………………………………………… 43 6 Forum For Integrated National Security | finsindia.org BACKGROUND On July 11 2015, Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) Thinkers Meet on Indian’s Third Line of Defense – a maritime subject with commercial implication for the nation. The objective of the Thinkers’ Meet was to bring together stalwarts from industry, various stake holders and experts to deliberate on the ‘Strategic Initiation of the 3rd Line of Defence for India - Floating Armories’ and ‘Restoration of HRA from East back to East’. 78˚ By65˚ bridging the formidable legal voids exhibited in the concept of Floating Armories and accommodating this new regime of developing international law, the Thinkers meet was converged towards deliberating an appropriate domestic legal precedence, which can empower and launch the Floating Armories as the first of a kind “India’s 3rd Line of Defence. The strategic issues deliberated before suggesting recommendations were as following: 1. Strategic Initiation of the 3rd Line of Defence for India - Floating Armories. 2. Security preparedness for the assets at Sea. 3. Security support for commercial vessels. 4. Neutralizing Revenue Losses. 5. Governance directives by GOI. 6. Creation of regulatory and policy framework for PMSC. 7. Immediate continued job opportunity for ex-servicemen 8. Views of the Enforcers, Industry and Administrators on the designated East HRA 78˚ 9. Financial and commercial impact of present designated East HRA 10.