A trilateral NSA level meeting between India Maldives, and Sri Lanka was held on November 26, 2020. India was represented by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Maldives by its defence minister Mariya Didi, and Sri Lanka by its defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne. The three countries revived their maritime security cooperation dialogue after a gap of six years. The dialogue was suspended after India’s relations with the Maldives took a downward course during the Abdua Yameen government. The trilateral maritime security cooperation dialogue was launched in 2011 in Male, followed by two more meetings in 2013 (Colombo) and in 2014 (New Delhi). Mauritius and Seychelles were represented virtually at the 2020 meeting.
The meeting ended successfully with the three countries agreeing to enhance intelligence-sharing to address challenges like terrorism, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
The meeting is significant for India in view of—China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean region, India-China border standoff, and Colombo’s high diplomatic involvement with Beijing. Besides, there is persistent resistance to India’s involvement in developing the East Container Terminal at the Colombo Port, which to be jointly developed by India and Japan. India is keen on carrying forward the project.
Key Highlights of the Joint Statement Some of the key highlights of the joint statement are as follows.
- The three sides exchanged views on common security threats and ‘agreed to broad-base cooperation by expanding the scope to improve intelligence-sharing and include issues like terrorism, radicalisation, extremism, drugs, arms and human trafficking, money laundering, cybersecurity, and effect of climate change on maritime environment.
- It was agreed that the leaders would meet regularly for discussions and to ensure timely implementation of decisions made at the meeting.
- It was decided to hold deputy NSA-level working group meetings twice a week for cooperation at the operational level.
- The three countries reviewed the maritime security environment and discussed cooperation in areas like maritime domain awareness, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, joint exercises, maritime threats, and marine pollution.
- The leaders agreed to further strengthen cooperation to ensure peace and security in the region for common benefit.
India’s National Security Advisor also held bilateral meetings with the Maldives’ defence minister and Sri Lanka’s defence secretary in which issues like a collaborative mechanism to enhance maritime cooperation, intelligence-sharing, and capacity building, as well as ways to curb drug smuggling and responding to natural calamities were discussed.
Analysis For Sri Lanka and Maldives, ensuring maritime security is a major security concern. The two countries are open to seeking assistance and security cooperation with everyone but they do not want to be unnecessarily embroiled into competition, involving big powers, in the Indian Ocean region. Though Sri Lanka and the Maldives know that India has its own strategic interests in the region and is competing with China to enhance its influence in the neighbouring countries, they are also very much aware of the fact that all the regional countries, including India, share common security interests in the Indian Ocean. As such, they recognise the need of a regional platform led by regional leaders to address their common security concerns and there is acceptance of India’s leadership role to lead such a regional initiative.
It is important that Sri Lanka and Maldives keep away from the influence of the big powers and maintain their non-aligned foreign policy. This requires them to engage in a multipronged strategy at the bilateral, regional and global level to address their security concerns. In the emerging security situation in the Indian Ocean, India appears comfortable with the presence of the US and other like-minded countries in the region. But it is pertinent for India to ensure that in the long run, it does not lose its relevance in the neighbourhood. Considering the geo-strategic dynamics in the Indian Ocean region, as well as the security needs and strategic concerns of the coastal countries, resumption of the NSA level trilateral meeting between India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives on maritime security cooperation and inviting Mauritius, Seychelles, and Bangladesh is a favourable development.