Challenge for Maldivian Coast Guard: Indian Ocean security

March 27, 2015

by Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe and Mitchell Sutton

AS THE the number of Indian Ocean Coast Guard forces multiply, the region’s small island-states are moving to secure their maritime domain from growing threats such as piracy, transnational criminal syndicates and illegal fishing.

Comprising 1, 200 separate islands that are scattered over 115,400km2 of ocean, the South Asian archipelagic state of the Maldives feels these pressures as acutely as any. Lacking the budget and capacity to build a traditional military, the Maldives relies entirely on the Coast Guard branch of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) to safeguard its maritime domain.

Force development

Like many small archipelago states, the Maldives has long relied on a paramilitary force to protect its sovereignty. Initially set up to deal nearly exclusively with civil policing and disaster relief, the service took its current paramilitary form after 1988, when it proved inadequate in the face of a coup d’etat launched by the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), then an outlawed militant ethnic-Sri Lankan Tamil secessionist group.

The Maldives was forced to rely on armed Indian intervention to neutralise the threat and restore order. This incident demonstrated the need for “a total defence force, based on a defensive posture with the Coast Guard as the integral service,” said the former Commander of the Maldivian Coast Guard, Colonel Mohamed Ibrahim, in an exclusive interview at the 2014 Indian Ocean Naval Symposium in Perth. Today it is referred to as a “joint paramilitary force” with a police element.

Asymmetrical threats

Since then, the Maldives has faced a number of challenges to its maritime security, including the emergence of piracy, and an escalation in smuggling and illegal fishing. In fact, Illegal fishing continues to be one of the main “pressing issues for Maldivian security,” because of the country’s strong economic reliance on fisheries. Around 25,000 to 40,000 people out of a total population of 340,000 are directly reliant on fishing, with fish staple to the Maldivian diet.

As the Colonel emphasised, however, “Fishing is not simply part of export revenue.” Any damage to the ecosystem, whether man-made or natural, would also have a “devastating impact” on tourism revenue, which makes up around a quarter of the Maldives’ total GDP. The problem, unfortunately, is not likely to go away soon.

One threat that has been heavily reduced is piracy, which was once a grave threat to the Maldives’ 1200 strong fisheries fleet. The advent of Somali piracy pushed foreign fishing boats closer to the Maldives’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), thereby damaging the domestic tuna industry. At the same time, the danger also made Maldivian fisherman reluctant to fully exploit their own EEZ for fear of being attacked.

As the international community cracked down on piracy, the situation appears to have improved. “Fortunately, since 2012, there have been no incidents and fishing has been on the rise: the fishing industry is flourishing and recovering,” the former Commander noted.

The end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 also appears to have helped in this regard. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) previously used the Maldives as a clandestine staging point for arms and drug smuggling, and even hijacked trawlers. For example, in 2007 this even led to a high seas live fire confrontation with the Maldivian Coast Guard. This state of affairs has since abated with the military defeat of the LTTE and the dismantling of its maritime infrastructure.

The country, however, remains vigilant. “It is virtually impossible to keep watch over 100 percent of that territory, or even partial control,” Colonel Mohamed Ibrahim said. Presently, the Coast Guard has three Offshore Patrol Vessels, three Inshore Patrol Vessels, seven auxiliary vessels and around 20 Interceptor Class harbour patrol boats to cover a large and porous maritime border. Complicating this effort is the fact that only 200 of the 1200 islands that makeup the Maldives archipelago are actually inhabited. “This is an immense task in terms of logistics, as well as finance,” he said.

With limited funds for new equipment acquisitions, the Coast Guard has been forced to develop innovative ways to monitor such a vast area. “On a national level we are doing what we call a ‘Networked Defence Concept,” the Colonel explained. “This is to establish the relationship between the shipping, fisheries, tourism and the transport sectors. For example, we will make sure that our fishermen are our eyes and ears on the high seas.”

As part of this surveillance strategy, “Each and every island has been given to a company or an individual, either to carry out agriculture, or to look after and tend to the island,” to create a sustainable monitoring and intelligence-gathering system against smuggling and piracy.” He added, “With the limited population and close nature of Maldives society, I don’t think there is a chance of the Maldives being used as a destination, nor as a point of export, for such activities.”

Deploying the fleet to areas where it can react quickly to incidents is also a major challenge. “We are decentralising our operations with respect to the archipelago. Presently, we are operating from four area commands and each have their substations. Our patrol boats will be able to reach any space within our contiguous zone, in plus or minus one hour and 10 minutes.”

In practice this means focussing much of the fleet around the space between India’s Minicoy Island and the Maldives, a body of water that is traversed by half of the total shipping in the Indian Ocean. The former Commander claimed that Coast Guard patrol vessels encounter up to 30 vessels a day in the area, so many that “we still haven’t been able to take an effective count.”

Regional cooperation

Alliances with neighbouring South Asian countries are also important in keeping watch over such a vast area. The Maldives has arranged a trilateral arrangement between itself, India and Sri Lanka to coordinate surveillance efforts, share information and work together to tackle maritime crime. In particular, India has helped to establish a coastal radar chain around the islands, engaging in joint planning and providing logistical support and surveillance, “beefing up the gaps within the Maldivian security services physically.”

The relationship with India has not precluded a strong engagement with Pakistan, however. Typifying the relationship as “very good,” Colonel Ibrahim noted the contribution of the Pakistani military towards MNDF development and training, as well as its frequent ship visits and bilateral security seminars.

Maldives has also established information exchange arrangements with other nearby Indian Ocean island states of Mauritius and Seychelles. Additionally, the Coast Guard is attempting to establish relationships with countries outside the region, viewing them as opportunities for “a value added advantage for us to establish relationships and exercises.”

The Coast Guard is already using its relations with the United States, referred to as a “key strategic partner” to build up its security infrastructure, especially in the realm of Special Forces training. Similarly, the Colonel indicated that the Maldives also hopes to develop a greater relationship with Australia, which has the largest search and rescue zone out of any country in the Indian Ocean region.

Prognosis

“We are in a very geostrategic location, an area of grave concern to the international community in a rising Indian Ocean economy. If we establish collective and collaborative security arrangements it will enhance security to other international partners, even far outside the Indian Ocean region, with countries like Japan and the Republic of Korea.” He added, “I see the Maldives Coast Guard as a regional security instrument rather than as a security institution of the Maldives.”

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* Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe is a security analyst, defence writer and consultant. He is also a Research Fellow with the Perth USAsia Centre, University of Western Australia; Associate of the Australian Risk Policy Institute; an Adjunct Scholar with the Centre for Independent Studies; Fellow of the National Security Institute, University of Canberra, and a Fellow with the Institute For Regional Security.

* Mitchell Sutton is a Perth-based security analyst, defence writer and consultant.

First published by the Australian Naval Institute. See: https://navalinstitute.com.au/challenge-for-maldivian-coast-guard-indian-ocean-security/