Maritime security

Story hook

It is 14 March 2024, 0915 GMT. The Maltese-flagged bulker MV Ruen, hijacked by Somali pirates off Yemen on 14 December 2023, is being repurposed as a mother ship to raid other shipping in the Western Indian Ocean. INS Kolkata, a Kolkata-class destroyer on Mission-Based Deployment, has trailed the pirate vessel for 40 hours under directions from Information Fusion Centre — Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Gurugram, Haryana.

The choreography is textbook. MARCOS — Navy's marine commandos — HALO-airdrop from a C-17 Globemaster flying out of Goa. Drones overhead. INS Subhadra providing fire support. Special heliborne intervention from INS Kolkata's deck. After a 40-hour standoff, on 16 March 2024, all 35 pirates surrender, 17 crew rescued, ship recovered. The pirates are brought to Mumbai for trial under the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act 2022 — the first major test of that law.

But notice what made the operation possible: the first sighting came not from an Indian ship but from an EU NAVFOR vessel that shared the contact via IFC-IOR's network. Seychelles allowed Indian P-8I overflight. Yemen acquiesced silently. Djibouti hosted refueling. 38 navies + 11 international agencies — including Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh — fed the operational picture.

This is the new face of maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) — collective, networked, multinational. And India, the resident power of the IOR, has positioned itself as the net security provider through institutions like IFC- IOR, SAGAR doctrine, MAHASAGAR (formerly SAGAR + Mission SAGAR), Colombo Security Conclave, IORA, IONS. Bilateral cooperation with Mauritius and Sri Lanka — and increasingly Maldives, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique — anchors the architecture.

For UPSC, this topic sits at the intersection of GS-II (international relations) and GS-III (internal/maritime security), and examiners increasingly frame it through SAGAR-MAHASAGAR.

Why this matters for UPSC

Asked in Mains GS-III in 2017 (cybersecurity / maritime), 2020 (China factor), and in Mains GS-II in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024 (neighbourhood + Indian Ocean). Prelims has tested IFC-IOR location and partners, SAGAR, IONS, IORA, Colombo Security Conclave, Quad maritime initiatives, and Maritime Anti-Piracy Act 2022. Interview boards probe India's balancing of China's presence + great-power cooperation + small- island-state vulnerabilities.