OCEAN’S KEEPERS

Context: India can urge UNSC to prioritise maritime domain for security, equitable growth.

Significance of UNSC chair for India

• PM Modi will reside on the virtual meet over an open debate at the global high table will mark a diplomatic first for an Indian PM: This role has been performed in the past by a minister or a senior diplomat.
• Push for Maritime Security: The subject to be deliberated upon by the UNSC members is “Enhancing maritime security: A case for international cooperation” under the “Maintenance of international peace and security”.
• This would be an extension of SAGAR (security and growth for all in the region) that he had unveiled in 2015 in relation to the Indian Ocean region (IOR).

Significance of maritime security

• Rising attacks on vessels: Piracy and non-traditional challenges such as gun-running and smuggling continue.

• The most recent incident, like the suspected drone attack (July 29) on an Israeli-controlled tanker in the North Arabian Sea off Oman, has created unease about the safety of the seafarers.
• Simmering tensions over the South China Sea: Over freedom of navigation (FON) rights in international waters and how China has laid claim to “territoriality” based on artificial structures (not natural islands).
• Many ASEAN nations and Quad members such as Japan, Australia and India subscribe to the principle of FON and do not buy the Chinese interpretation of the “nine-dash-line”.
• Rising incidents of accidents: Accidents onboard large crude carriers and cargo vessels in the IOR have added to the anxiety about marine pollution and its downstream consequences for the health of the oceans.
• Climate change: Over the last few decades, global warming and carbon emissions have altered the chemistry of the oceans, and a UN report has come up with grim statistics.
• Oceans have become more acidic as seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide, and the upper layers of the open ocean have lost between 0.5% and 3.3% of their oxygen since 1970 as temperatures have risen.
• This will lead to “sea levels rising at a relentless pace for hundreds of years, potentially by 17 feet or more by 2300” and threatens many islands and low-lying coastal areas along the global littoral.

Way Forward: Security and equitable growth for all by husbanding the global ocean for future generations is a laudable goal, and encouraging the UNSC to prioritise this issue is a worthy cause.

• Support on those areas that could be brought under the rubric of “global good”: Strategic issues like the South China Sea and FON would most likely be retaliated by China.
• It is better to debate on “global goods”, For instance, the welfare of seafarers, which is the foundation of global trade, has received scant attention in this Covid-scarred period.
• Advocate for sustained focus on the maritime domain and the correlation with globalisation, the blue economy, the health of the ocean and the overall impact on human security.