Charting Geopolitical Waters: Hydrographic Diplomacy And India’s Strategic Role In The Indian Ocean Region – Analysis
In the age of yore, when Britannica ruled the globe and the sun never set in the British Empire, several factors contributed towards the Royal Navy’s global sea dominance. While maritime aspirations owing to unfavourable conditions and lack of resources at home was a major reason for the outwards pivot, the hydrographic prowess demonstrated by able Naval surveyors provided the necessary means to create sea-based ‘in-roads’ into erstwhile unfamiliar and uncharted waters.
In modern times, the field of hydrography has evolved from being a pre-condition for expeditionary and exploratory operations overseas to the benign role of assuring global maritime safety with major hydrographic players freely sharing data and products with each other under the overarching umbrella of the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO). This noble aim assumes significance for smaller littoral countries, who do not possess the necessary hydrographic resources, which are technically intensive and, in turn, highly expensive, in charting safe navigable passages for maritime trade that are often hindered by archipelagic features and underwater obstructions.
Within the Indian Ocean Rim, several littorals regularly seek hydrographic assistance from capable Navies such as the Royal Navy, United States Navy or the Indian Navy. As they are committed to ensuring the safety of the global commons, these requests are usually actioned upon, albeit at a substantial cost to the service provider government. As an example, a study conducted by the IHO for a hydrographic survey off Vanuatu, a small archipelagic nation located in the South Pacific, placed the cost of a basic hydrographic survey, excluding the price of publishing electronic and paper charts, to a whooping USD 383 Mn in 2013.
The benefits arising for the host country, especially island nations which are largely tourist-based economies, are aplenty, including quantified benefits such as better accessibility routes for cruise ships, identification of berthing and anchorage areas for merchant and cruise ships which directly attract returns through an increased inflow of tourists. The unquantified long-term benefits of such surveys include the identification of potential areas prone to climatic and environmental changes, which will lead to better disaster mitigation measures.
Concerted hydrographic surveys play a crucial role in discerning baselines (lines or curves that follow the natural coastal landscape) which thereafter help in defining the limits of territorial waters, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and Continental Shelf for a particular coastal country. The data points emerging from these surveys form the basis for any country to claim additional EEZ or Continental Shelf areas within the framework of the United Nations Laws on Conventions of the Seas (UNCLOS). Needless to say, if approved by the UN Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (UN CLCS), this provides additional sea-based resources to a particular country, thereby directly improving its economy. In recent times, several countries have benefitted from this provision, especially in the Indian Ocean Rim, expanding from Africa to Asia, a region wherein around 64% and 36% of waters remain uncharted. Amongst these, Mauritius and Seychelles filed a joint claim in December 2008 and were awarded an additional 3,96,000 sq km in 2011 which is now being jointly managed by the two countries. Similarly, Maldives filed a claim for an extended continental shelf in 2011, which is still under consideration.
Interestingly, India has been the focal point for providing hydrographic assistance for all of these three countries, as well as other IOR littorals such as Oman, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania, ultimately leading to their additional claims with the UN CLCS. In the case of Maldives, the former Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed had met with the then Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India, Vice Admiral B.R. Rao, in January 2010, seeking assistance for the conduct of hydrographic surveys to prepare the additional Continental Shelf claim of Maldives.
The sustained hydrographic assistance provided by India also resulted in the India – Maldives Hydrographic Agreement which was signed between the two countries in 2019 during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Maldives. Unfortunately, this agreement of cooperation was terminated by President Muizzu on assuming power in November 2023. Recently, Maldives signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology that paves the way for an increased presence of Chinese survey vessels around the island nation.
The Chinese forays into the Indian Ocean Region through seemingly benign initiatives such as the MoU with Maldives could have a larger geopolitical security implication in the future through questionable use of technology for garnering covert intelligence. Unlike the hydrographic services offered by India, Chinese assistance comes with a hidden cost, especially through its employment of dual-use survey vessels and the apparent lack of transparency in divulging the true intentions of such vessels. Further, China does not encourage capacity and capability development in the host country, whereas assistance from other players, such as India, focuses on training personnel in handling the sensitive survey equipment and subsequent IHO standards certification. Thus, the genuine concerns over Chinese designs through its seemingly benign initiative have been unequivocally voiced by several IOR strategists.
While each nation remains free to choose its partners as deemed necessary for its national security calculus, it would serve well for the Maldives to seek lessons from the chequered history. An acknowledgement of erstwhile Indian support in this domain would also keep lines of operations for future assistance programmes, should the Maldives choose to dissuade from its current bonhomie with the Chinese.
