India hosted the 7th edition of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) last week, which saw the group expand with Seychelles being admitted and Bangladesh joining as an observer.
From small beginnings as a trilateral arrangement bringing together the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India in 2011, the group is now poised to enhance maritime cooperation and security particularly in the northern Indian Ocean.
Ashok Behuria, Coordinator of South Asia Studies at the Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis in Delhi, told StratNewsGlobal on The Gist that the CSC has seen deeper integration, “moving from a formal organisation to a more structured grouping and, the participants in this meeting, the, talked about the need for institutionalization of this framework. So you are going to have a Secretariat perhaps.”
In his view, the key achievement was moving from moving the focus from traditional, naval patrols and things like that to contemporary threats like cyber security. So there are more issues in the basket and participating countries will come together and discuss these issues more often and try to find out a common agenda and develop a common security vision.
Behuria acknowledged that barring India, most of the CSC members comprise small island states with limited resources and capability. But as he also pointed out:
“If you look at their strategic location, they are more … and they, do have their own maritime outlook. The point here is to develop a common maritime outlook and a common security vision. And that will contribute to the security of the Indian Ocean region.”
India remains in the driver’s seat in the sense that “India will steer the discourse. But the point here is to bring together all these sovereign nations, you have to treat them equally despite their size and because of their strategic location.”
By taking advantage of their “locational importance”, Behuria believes, it will be possible to develop a common security prism, one which is native to the region. In fact, one could argue that India’s concept of SAGAR (Security & Defence for All in the Region), is a step towards developing such a “native outlook”.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Ashok Behuria of the Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis.
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