SAARC: Emerging Security Challenges

and need for strategic initiatives in the Indian Ocean

Mohammed Khalid

Abstract: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in
1985 at Dacca on the basis of respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, political equality and independence of all member states. Its member states viz., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have committed themselves to 16 areas of cooperation. From Dhaka in 1985 to Thimpu Summit in 2010 SAARC has issued 16 Summit declarations. Its members have signed many agreements and conventions so far. Incidentally these efforts have not made SAARC a strong regional organisation like for example ASEAN. After the end of Cold-War new security challenges have emerged in the Indian Ocean region which threatens trade and commerce of SAARC countries. However, all these years, it has ignored or paid less attention to the rising security challenges which emanate from the Indian Ocean. SAARC countries have not devised any collective mechanism to fight sea piracy, norco-terrorism, drug trafficking, security of Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCS) or surveillance of Ocean around their 11,129 km long coastline. The paper looks at these problems and possible strategic initiatives by sea-facing SAARC countries.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in December 1985 dedicated to economic, technological, social, and cultural development and emphasising on collective self-reliance of South Asian nations. The Organisation based itself on the respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, political equality and independence of all members states; non-interference in the internal matters; cooperation for mutual benefit; take all decisions unanimously; keep aside all bilateral issues and discusse multilateral (involving many countries) concerns. Its eight member states viz., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have committed themselves to 16 areas of cooperation such as agriculture, biotechnology, culture, energy, environment, economy and trade, finance, funding mechanism, human resource development, poverty alleviation, people to people contact, security

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aspects, social development, science and technology; communications and tourism.1 Defined objectives of SAARC include to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life; to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential; to promote and strengthen selective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia; to contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another's problems; to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields; to strengthen cooperation with other developing countries; to strengthen cooperation among them in international forums on matters of common interest; and to cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes.
In order to promote cooperation SAARC countries have devised a four tier system. At the summit level there are head of states and governments and there have been 17 Summit declarations so far from Dhaka in 1985 to Addu in 2011. The summit declarations project the overall policies of SAARC showing commitment to the need for regional integration and cooperation in different fields included in its Charter.2 Its Charter committees include Council of Minsiters (CoM) comprising of the Foreign Ministers of the Member States to formulate the policies of the Association and review progress of cooperation under SAARC. The Standing Committee, comprising of the Foreign Secretaries of the SAARC Member States, has been created to take measures /decisions relating to overall monitoring and coordination of programme under different areas; approve projects and programmes, including modalities of their financing; determine inter-sectoral priorities; mobilise regional and external resources; and identify new areas of cooperation. It has Technical Committees comprising representatives of Member States, to implement, coordinate and monitor the programmes in respective areas of cooperation. Technical Committees work on their respective areas to provide support to SAARC activities include Technical Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Technical Committee on Health and Population Activities, Technical Committee on Women, Youth and Children, Technical Committee on Science and Technology, Technical Committee on Transport, and Technical Committee on Environment.3

To assist the Standing Committee, a Programming Committee up in December 1985 to select regional projects, including their location, 49

was set

cost-sharing modalities among the Member States, and mobilisation of external resources etc. SAARC has also developed other mechanisms for cooperation on Agriculture and Rural Development; Research-ExtensionFarmer Linkages; Social Development; Trafficking and Child Welfare; on HIV and AIDS; Energy Renwable Energy; Technology Transfer and Knowledge sharing. SAARC has set up regional centers such as SAARC Agricultural Centre (SAC), Dhaka; SAARC Meteorological Research Centre (SMRC), Dhaka; SAARC Tuberculosis Centre (STC), Kathmandu; SAARC Documentation Centre (SDC), New Delhi; SAARC Human Resources Development Centre (SHRDC), Islamabad; SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre (SCZMC), Maldives; SAARC Information Centre (SIC), Nepal; SAARC Energy Centre (SEC), Pakistan; SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC), New Delhi; SAARC Forestry Centre (SFC), Thimpu; SAARC Cultural Centre (SCC), Sri Lanka.4 Its Ministerial Declarations include Rawalpindi Resolution on Children of South Asia, August 1996; New Delhi Declaration of Environment Ministers, April, 1997; Declaration of Commerce Ministers, May 1998; Common Position on Climate Change, November 1998; Colombo Declaration on a Common Environment Programme; Colombo Statement on Children of South Asia; Islamabad Declaration on Health, 2005; Ministerial Declaration on Global Economic Crisis, and Declaration on Cooperation in Combating Terrorism, February 2009. SAARC countries have signed agreements to fulfill its Charter obligations. Important agreements they have signed so far include: Agreement on south Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA); Agreement for establishment of SAARC Arbitration Council; Final Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation; Final Agreement on Customs Matters; Agreement on establishing the SAARC food bank; Charter of South Asian Development Fund (SDF); and Agreement on the Establishment of South Asian Regional Standards Organisation (SARSO). SAARC Conventions held so far include SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism of November 1987; SAARC Convention on Narcotics Drugs of November 1990; Convention on Promotion of Welfare of Children and Convention on Combating and Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution of January 2002; Additional Protocol on Terrorism, Jan 2004 Convention on Mutual Assistance on Criminal Matters of August 2008.5

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SAARC Charter, its 17 Summit meetings, declarations, agreements and conventions prima facie give a very glorious picture of emerging cooperation among the member states in different fields. Still many feel that SAARC is not a vibrant regional organisation like for example ASEAN. It is argued that smaller countries in the region feel insecure because India is too large and is clearly the big brother. India-Pakistan relations, or rather tensions are main trouble for SAARC to grow as a strong organization. At Thimpu Summit in 2010 SAARC leaders admitted a collective failure to develop their conflict-ridden region and to forge a united front against the threats of climate change and terrorism.6 Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Thinley in his address, said, Saarcs journey has not been one of outstanding success and We are losing focus. He further said that the squabbles and tensions between the blocs member-states had prevented implementation of its numerous, but ultimately toothless, commitments to change. Concluding his address he warned that Fractious and quarrelsome neighbours do not make a prosperous community. Tensions in Indo-Pakistan relations are also cited as the reasons for SAARCs failure along with other geographical, ethnic, historical and political factors that have gridlocked SAARC. Overawing geographical presence of India, differences in political systems, historical differences, pangs of bloody partition of British India, which has left unresolved partition disputes and problems of ethnic Indian minority communities in Sri Lanka, are only some of the problems in the way of integration of SAARC countries. Apart from the commonly known and discussed failures of SAARC, my contention is that SAARC has not shown the dynamism to live up to the fast changing regional and global situation. The organisation was created in 1985 when the Cold War was on its last legs. After the Cold War, the world in general and South Asia in particular face a new set of security challenges. South Asias strategic location in the middle of Southeast, Central and West Asia, and at the centre of the Indian Ocean, leaves it open to face many security challenges. For example, of eight SAARC countries, five i.e., Pakistan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are either on the Indian Ocean littoral or islands. Total estimated coastline of SAARC countries comes to about 11,129 km. This includes 1,050 km coastline of Pakistan, 7517 km of India, (including 6100 km of Indian mainland) 644 km. of Maldives, 1,340 km of Sri Lanka and 580 km of Bangladesh.

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Continental shelf of these countries averages 200 km in the Ocean. Apart from the coast they have their respective Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), over which each state has special rights of exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and windand.7 The number of pirate attacks worldwide has tripled in the past decade, and sea piracy is becoming a key tactic of terrorist groups. To monitor and protect their territorial waters, Pakistan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have created their respective Coast Guards but have not made any effort to devise a common startegy to protect their coasts or other economic interests in the surrounding waters. Indian Ocean is life line for the SAARC countries but in it 17 Summit Declarations there is not a single reference to it. There is no agreement there about creation of a common military strategy, or force or common surveillance or sharing information with each other in order to secure their maritime boundaries. Neglecting such an important issue has caused a maritime disorder and incidents like 26/11 in Mumbai. In our neighbourhood, the countries of Pacific Rim initiated The North Pacific Coast Guard Agencies Forum (NPCGF) in 2000 to foster multilateral cooperation through the sharing of information on matters related to combined operations, exchange of information, illegal drug trafficking, maritime security, fisheries enforcement, illegal migration, and maritime domain awareness.8 SAARC countries need to take initiatives to chalk out common strategies to secure their water fronts. Around 90 percent of the world's trade is carried out through the oceans. Among the SAARC nations, 96 percent of Pakistan's trade is seaborne. India has very limited trade with its neighbours by land and about ninety percent of its trade is by sea. More than 80 percent of Bangladesh, the entire trade of Maldives and Sri Lanka is dependent on the waves of the Indian Ocean. Substantial amount of Nepalese and Bhutanese trade depends on sea which is carried through the Kolkata, Haldia ports. Despite our overwhelming dependence on sea SAARC has not devised any collective measures to protect our trading ships in our maritime boundaries. This initiative is long overdue and should be redressed at the earliest. In the post Cold War era many countries liberalised their economies resulting into huge economic growth resulting in increase in trade and commerce. This brought into prominence the importance of Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs) in the Indian Ocean. SLOCS are important to the countries of South Asia due to dependence of their trade on sea

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and this would be further increased in the coming years. The security of SLOC is now one of the priorities in the strategic thinking and policy making for the trading nations. Some of the most critical sea lanes connecting the oil rich Middle East, to East Asia have become highways of international trade and they pass through the vicinity of South Asia. Passing through the Gulf of Harmuz and Sea of Oman, Lakshadweep Sea, and the Andaman Sea, these SLOCS have become life lines for the nations. Without ensuring the security of SLOCs no SAARC country can dream of the safety of their trading ships. All the SAARC countries heavily import oil from different countries of Middle East and thus dependent on trouble free supplies. In all its deliberations during the last 26 years since 1985, SAARC has not discussed any collective initiative to protect these SLOCS. This initiative needs an urgent attention especially by India, a burgeoning economy of 21 st century.9 Piracy in the Indian Ocean has become the greatest threat to the movement of maritime traffic. Threat perception is very high where the ships have to criss-cross through the narrow straits. South Asia has two major choke points --the Strait of Hormuz, and the Strait of Malacca-- near its borders. Pakistans port of Gwadar is just 400 km from the Strait of Hormuz and Malacca Straits lie near Indias Andaman Islands. Rising from the lawless coast of Somalia, the pirates prowl the Arabian Sea and have attacked ships more than 1,500 nautical miles (2778 km) from Somali coast. Using increasingly sophisticated weapons, tactics and planning, pirates operate as far east as Maldives in good weather. Piracy threat emerged in the late 1980s and nearly 2700 piracy related incidents have been recorded since 1984 which occurred mostly in territorial waters while
ships were at anchor or berthed. Pirates have attacked or hijacked hundred of ships in the Arabian Sea including super tankers for ransom. Rising pirate attacks have led to a 12 15 per cent rise in insurance premiums and a hike from $500 to $20,000 of the special risk insurance for each ship passing through the Gulf of Aden. In the days of growing trade and commerce, this menace needs to be tackled collectively. Of the SAARC countries, India and Maldives are most affected by

pirates. India has large presence in the shipping industry in the world. India and Pakistan
have deployed their naval ships in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden. SAARC as an organisation has least discussed about the need for a collective initiative in this regard.10 Sea Terrorism was not given much importance in the 1980s. The enormity of its threat became clear in the 1990s, as there was a sudden rush in the number of sea attacks. Such attacks

are more devastating in the

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ports when most crews of cargo ships are unarmed and defenseless to an armed attack. In such attacks, the disabling of a ship at port is enough to halt all activity at that port for some time, especially if the disabled ship is blocking the movement for other vessels. Such an attack has disastrous economic impact. In 2000, attack on the American Naval Warship, USS Cole in the Port of Aden stunned the world in which Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured.11 Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries attacked Maldives in 1988, overpowered the Maldivian Militia and attacked the President's residence. SAARC countries have about 20 major ports which include Karachi, Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, Mumbai, Port Blair, Visakhapatnam, Chittagong, Mongla, and Colombo. Although there are many government sponsored agencies involved with port security in each country, but a collective protection shield to secure ports can also be considered at the SAARC level.
Surveillance of ocean is another important initiative which needs a serious consideration by SAARC. India being technologically competent can take the lead in this direction. With the support and cooperation of other SAARC countries India can launch intelligence satellite intended to keep an eye on ship movements in the waters around South Asian coast. Data collected from an ocean surveillance system can be immediately relayed to member states if an unusual ships movement is detected. Satellite ocean surveillance can be effectively used to strengthen security of seas around. Setting up monitoring stations around the coastal areas of South Asia is another option to keep watch on ship movement. In fact India has already started this process by setting up high-tech monitoring station in northern Madagascar to tackle piracy and terrorism.12 For this purpose, Astola Island, which is Pakistan's largest offshore island and the only significant offshore island in the northern Arabian Sea, can be used for surveillance of pirate and terrorist activities in the sea of Oman and Gulf of Harmuz. Similarly Churna Island off the Karachi Harbour, used as a firing range by Pakistan Navy, can be used for this purpose. Indian islands of Diu, Lakshadweep, and Andaman islands can be equipped with monitoring devices to check activities of pirates in the North Bay of Bengal or Malacca Straits. In Sri Lanka Analativu a small island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula, Talaimannar, the northern tip of Mannar Island

and Dondra --southern most tip of the countries can provide strategic surveillance stations. India and Sri Lanka can take the initiative to set up surveillance stations at these places. Spread of small arms and their illicit trafficking is not a new phenomenon in itself, but has attained a new dimension with the end of the Cold War.

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There is strong funding link between terrorist groups and drug trafficking. Waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding South Asian sub-continent have been frequently used for this purpose. SAARC countries are particularly affected because the region is infested with all kind of terrorist groups. There are a number of terrorist groups active in India. Pakistan has many domestic and trans-national terrorist outfits which are a big threat not only for Pakistan but also for the neihbouring India. Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka also have active terrorist groups in their respective countries. These outfits use sea routes clandestinely to import small arms to carry out their activities.13 The two largest opium producing countries in the world --Myanmar and Afghanistan-- are either part of SAARC or in its vicinity. The main drug of interest to transnational criminal groups in the Indian Ocean Region is heroin, cultivated in two main areas referred to as --the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent. Drugs and the money accruing from this illegal trade are often laundered through illegal means. This contraband is sent to other parts of the world using drug mules, fishing boats, container ships etc. SAARC has addressed to this problem in its various summit declarations but has not so far developed any collective mechanism to stem the ocean routes used for drug and arm trafficking. SAARC has not taken any tangible initiative to check this nexus. This initiative is need of the time.

Critical Sea Lines of Communication near South Asia

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International Drug Trafficking Routes.

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Map-4

Map-5

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Map-6

SAARC Countries Conclusion Indian Ocean, the third largest Ocean in the world is inextricably interwoven with and has huge and growing strategic significance for South Asia. Their history, economies and security is greatly dependent on the Indian Ocean. To develop cooperation among them countries of South Asia formed SAARC with some determined areas of cooperation. They signed many agreements and conventions forging collaboration in different fields. Due to internal contradictions SAARC has failed to become a vibrant organization. It has not lived up to the changing geopolitical environment in the Indian Ocean. With the rising spate of terrorist activities around the Indian Ocean and growing menace of sea piracy a new set of security threats is looming on South Asia. SAARC as an organization has not addressed the issue of these threats. There is need to counter the terrorists and pirates collectively. Security of ports, trading ships and Sea Lines of Communications is equally important for economic development of South

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Asian nations. As the region is close to the golden triangle and the golden crescent, they need to cooperate to fight against the drug-arms nexus. Sharing strategic information and setting up surveillance posts are some of the initiatives which are highly required by SAARC to secure the waters around South Asia. India and Sri Lanka, two maritime nations can lead to take these initiatives. References:
1. For areas of cooperation, see, official website of SAARC at, http://www.saarcsec.org/SAARC-Charter/5/# 2. For Summit declarations, see, http://www.saarc-sec.org/Summit-Declarations/67/ 3. Upreti, Bhuwan Chandra (2000): SAARC: Areas and dimensions of cooperation, Delhi, Kalinga Publications, p.9; Kashikar, Mohan (2000): SAARC: its genesis, development and prospects, Mumbai, Himalaya Pub. House. p.5, 56, 64. 4. Ibid., 5. See, official website of SAARC, op., cit 6. Saarc leaders admit to collective failure, Gulf Times, April 29, 2010; also see, The Nation, April 29, 2010. 7. For geography of the Indian Ocean see, Ferenc A Vli (1976): Politics of the Indian Ocean region: the balances of power, Free Press, p.25 8. North Pacific Coast Guard Forum NPCGF What Is It?, see, Canadian Coast Guard, available at, http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/e0007869 9. Ye Hailin, Securing SLOCs by Cooperation --Chinas Perspective of Maritime S Security in the Indian Ocean, International Maritime Conference 3, National Maritime Policy Research Center, Bahria University Karachi, Pakistan, March 2009; Ji Guoxing, SLOC Security in the Asia Pacific, Center occasional paper Asia-pacific center for security studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 2000 10. Anna Bowden et al, The Economic Cost of Maritime Piracy, One Earth Future Working Paper, December 2010, available at, http://oceansbeyondpiracy.org/sites/default/files/documents_old/The_Economic_Cost_of _Piracy_Full_Report.pdf 11. Terrorist Attack on USS Cole: Background and Issues for Congress, CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, available at, news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/crs/coleterrattck13001.pdf 12. India activates first listening post on foreign soil: radars in Madagascar, The Indian Express, July 17, 2007. 13 Aparajita Biswas, Small Arms and Drug Trafficking in the Indian Ocean egion, Working Paper: No. 4, Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai.

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