Experts for closer India-Lanka maritime cooperation

New Delhi, Dec 17: Experts from India and Sri Lanka have called for closer maritime cooperation between the two countries and asked the various parties to exercise wisdom and maturity in bringing an end to the ethnic strife in the Island nation.

This message came out loud and clear at a recent seminar organised by the Observer Research Foundation here where think tanks from the two countries made out a case for closer engagement and stressed the need for widening co-operation in the sphere of maritime security.

The seminar was entitled 'India- Sri Lanka Maritime Co-operation; Opportunities and Challenges.' The experts, led by former Defence Minister K C Pant, noted that there was a period after independence when Lanka's economy registered robust growth rate. Even now. many of its social indicators were the best in South Asia.

They said but for the ethnic strife in the last few decades, Lanka would have been able to achieve a much higher growth rate as well as all-round regionally-balanced development.

Noting that complexity and ambiguity were the hallmarks of today's security environment, especially in the maritime sphere, they said terrorism has significantly increased the nature of non-military, trans-national, and asymmetric threats in maritime sector. But unlike traditional military scenarios involving combat operations at sea, in which adversaries and theatres of action were clearly defined, these non-military threats often demand responses that were more flexible and unorthodox.

''Having been exposed to the complexities of the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka as Defence Minister in the later half of the 1980's, when the IPKF was there, I realise that great wisdom would be required to overcome years of distrust and bloodshed,'' Mr Pant, who was Deputy Chairman Planning Commision in the NDA regime, said.

The experts hoped the agreement between the Government and the main opposition party will give a strong impetus to the process of finding a solution which can satisfy the aspirations of the Tamils within a united Lanka. This, they said, appeared to be the objective of the MOU between the two parties and the report of the expert committee.

The experts said they would welcome an early resolution of this conflict without further bloodshed and suffering.

The argument for a closer engagement was weaved into several factors-- close neighbours, a shared common destiny, the two countries are bound to each other by culture, religion and history.

Mr Pant argued that a coming together of Indian and Lankan expertise, acumen, businesses and partnership would result in a win-win situation for all. He said a fertile area of cooperation between the two countries was the fisheries sector. "Tuna alone is plentiful enough to make a material difference to the lives of coastal communities. Why then have we not been able to attract sufficient interest in this area? Is it lack of funding, know-how or organised effort? Can we not carry out a combined study to realize the true potential of this marine cash crop?," Mr Pant said.

He said India has been a pioneer investor in deep sea nodules. It retained half of the one lakh fifty thousand square miles allotted to it by the International Seabed Authority.''Though the exploitation of the deep sea is difficult and challenging, the venture is exciting and full of promise,'' he added.

Mr Pant said India can offer a large pool of trained persons for a wide spectrum of skills. ''Although much has been said and written about our IT and technical prowess, I can assure you that our youthful populace, given the right training, can also deliver the goods in any other area,'' he added.

The thin tank, who has held many portfolios as a Minsiter in different governments, said in the maritime domain, threats to maritime security have always been prevalent, but they were no longer confined to pirates on sail ships. Maritime security now is exposed to a variety of threats like environmental degradation, resource scarcity, trans-national crimes, drug-trafficking, illegal immigration and even gun-running.

Mr Pant said developing the framework for a comprehensive security policy within the ambit of ocean management was, therefore, an inescapable necessity.

UNI