India, China cooperate to make high seas safe

New Delhi, Beijing join Japan in escorting merchant ships across waterways

Notwithstanding the simmering tension between them, India and China have begun to cooperate in the high seas to ensure safe passage of merchant vessels with optimal use of warships from both sides, which in turn saves resources for both.

Navies from the two neighbouring countries had a face-off in the South China Sea region of the Indian Ocean when an English-speaking caller identifying himself as the PLA Navy official asked INS Airavat to move away from the South China Sea.

The unprecedented warning ruffled many diplomatic feathers as it came immediat­ely after Beijing’s objections to India’s offer of assistance to Vietnam to explore oil resources off Vietnam coast.

Since January 1 this year, warships of India, China and Japan are sharing their rosters before escorting commercial ships through the piracy-infested 490 nautical miles long internationally recognised transit corridor in the Gulf of Aden.

The purpose was to maintain adequate gap between two convoys so that every warship’s escorting capability can be put to best use, said Monty Khanna, assistant chief of naval staff in-charge of foreign cooperation and intelligence.

Since 2008, Indian Navy is sending warships in the Gulf of Aden to a provide safe passage for merchant vessels. So far, Indian Navy escorted more than 2,000 vessels, out of which more than 1,500 are foreign flag ships. India along with China, Japan, Russia, Thailand and Singapore are independent countries who are not part of any patrolling group like Task Force 151, TF-465 and TF-508 under the respective leadership of USA, EU and NATO.

The problem

As India, China and Japan were setting up their own schedules, it created a problem for many merchant ships. There were days when no escorting vessel was available from any of the three countries as they either departed within a short span of time and merchant ships had to wait or were on their return way.

The merchant shipowners complained to a regional working-level body called Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE) in Bahrain asking the independent players to coordinate among themselves. All key sea-faring nations are SHADE members.
The convoy coordination group under SHADE took up the issue with New Delhi, Beijing and Tokyo.

After rounds of discussions in the last six months, it has now been decided that India, China and Japan will share each other’s roster three months in advance through SHADE for ensuring safe passage of maximum number of ships with one escorting vessel.
The trio was sharing information through a secured SHADE server in Bahrain.

While Indian Navy deploys one warship for patrolling the IRTC, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has positioned three ships including two warships. Japanese resource includes one-two ships and an aircraft stationed at Djibouti.

Currently the Indian ship on duty is INS Trishul, which was preceded by INS Godavari.