Sri Lanka’s maritime legacy needs to enter the wider horizon

Rear Admiral Y. N. Jayarathna
22 Min Read

What is maritime security?

The definition of the term maritime security varies as per state perception. Since no internationally agreed definition exists, the term has often been used to describe both the existing and the new regional and international challenges in the maritime domain. Maritime security is an umbrella term used to classify issues in the said domain that are often linked to national security, human security, marine environment and economic development. It includes the world’s oceans as well as regional seas, territorial watersrivers and ports. Further, maritime security includes elements of international peace and security, sovereignty/territorial integrity/political independence, security against crimes occur at sea, security of resources and environmental security; while maritime safety is concerned with training (both technical and personnel), transport, construction and equipment-related issues, assistance in distress situations etc.

The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world’s five oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2 of the water on Earth‘s surface. It is bounded by Asia to the North, Africa to the West and South-East Asia and Australia to the East. To the South it is bounded by the Southern Ocean or Antarctica. Along its core, the Indian Ocean has regional seas such as the Arabian SeaLaccadive SeaSomali SeaBay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The Indian Ocean region faces many traditional and non-traditional safety and security challenges including piracy, armed robberies at high seas, terrorism, human trafficking, illegal movement of persons, drugs trafficking, illicit trafficking of wildlife including fauna and flora, trafficking of weapons, crimes in the fisheries sector such as poaching, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, degradation of ocean health, unlawful exploitation of marine resources and climate change to its related repercussions on environmental security.

Because of the new economic developments and global trade, maritime security in the Indian Ocean has come into limelight. The Indian Ocean since ancient times was an important geo-strategic arena of inter-regional unities held together informally by trade winds and trade relations. In the geographical and historical convergence of East and West, Asians, Africans and Europeans interacted with one another over a period of many centuries, participating in a sophisticated structure of commerce and politics underpinned by the system of monsoons. Indian Ocean gained immense geo-strategic importance in the Cold War period. Because of its geography and was coveted by both the rival camps. Hence Washington and Moscow are competing to gain political influence in the Indian Ocean region. Accordingly, Washington and Moscow have established two camps in the Indian Ocean. In that, maritime security completely depended on naval security, naval deployment and naval supremacy. Those were the basis for maritime security at that time. The stakes in the maritime balance of power are being raised continually by the unprecedented volume and value of globalized maritime trade transiting strategic choke-points and dense sea lanes of communication.

At present, maritime security has transformed into national interests of economic powers and regional powers. And even it transformed into a national interest of weaker players. Somalia provides a better example for this. In past decades, Somalia had captured the global attention due to the surge in piracy off the Somali coast and it had a severe commercial, global and regional impact it posed to international shipping, has brought an array of naval deployments from various external actors, including, the US, EU, Japan, China, South Africa and India. There was no need for a government to take national interest. The extraordinary growth in piracy off the coast of Somalia had led to a multi-pronged international attention. In Somalia, without governance, rebel groups start operating. As a result, the global intervention was needed to curtail, control and provide security for the marine trade.

Global maritime security has journeyed through radical changes in recent years. Thus ‘maritime security’ encompasses various aspects and roles contrary to what one would perceive. It contains all matters that are related to the maritime affairs. Maritime security could be described as a field that always leads to new dimensions. It can spread to the air, surface and sub-seas.  For example, underwater domain awareness has become the latest subject in maritime security. This is because there is an increase in the use of sub-surface for various purposes – be it military or scientific. Such activities are taking place in the Indian Ocean with the increased number of unmanned automated underwater vehicles. Therefore, this is a topic of interest at the moment, which is also a very complicated, interconnected and broader subject to discuss. Also, the global maritime security transcends several more aspects such as diffusion of maritime power, changes in maritime geography, competition to extract marine resources, marine environmental and livelihood concerns etc. There are issues exist of unregulated fishing, over-capitalization, and excessive fleet size, vessel re-flagging to escape controls and lack of sufficient cooperation among countries. In order to address these issues, the agreement requires the cooperation of regional fisheries organizations and other arrangements. And also, seabed, ocean floor and subsoil mineral resources in the high seas should be administrated by all the stakeholders. All the regional players should come together and protect the available resources utilizing the expertise they have in this regard.

Another common factor the regional players have is the climate change. Irrespective of political and geographical frontiers, the flowing of water across the seas is seamless. What is happening in the Indian Ocean; whether it is in the Southern section, or in the Northern, or in the Eastern end, irrespective of the locality, dictates terms of climate changes across all the nations surrounded by the Indian Ocean would be affected at the end of the day and the nations beyond the rim nations. This is exactly why maritime security is a global concern, a concern for many.

Sri Lanka is situated in a strategically important location in the Indian Ocean region. As a maritime nation, Sri Lanka has developed security strategies in history based on the perspective of maritime environment. Great emphasis has to be placed on the importance of ensuring the safety of the ships that call onto the Sri Lankan ports to keep the global trade unhindered. In order for the trade to flow effectively, the nexus between ships, ports and people must also be secured.  It is a common factor; not only to Sri Lanka but to other nations as well. Pointing out the Somalian piracy issues is a glaring example. In order to combat these issues, countries got together and formed a task force and a regulatory mechanism was put in place to mitigate or eliminate piracy. The response to maritime disasters requires greater coordination and regional combination as it is also a part of maritime security. As per the conventions with International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Search and Rescue Region (SRR) allocated to Sri Lanka, consists of a vast sea area and is almost twenty seven times (27) the land mass and bordering the Australian continent from the South, Indian sub continent and Andaman islands from the north-east, Indonesia from the East and the Maldivian SAR regions from West. Hence Sri Lanka should have a huge potential to handle the combination and coordination that are required. Responding to maritime disasters, as it is part of maritime security it is also the safety of life at sea and safety of navigation. Thus, all contribute to one single factor; that is maritime security. Thus, should encourage a harmonized frame work for a global search and rescue activities in the sea and further encourages regional co-operation.

 

Maritime laws and agreements

Moving onto the subject of maritime laws and agreements. It is essential for a country like Sri Lanka to understand its legal rights and jurisdiction given its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. The Law of the Sea is therefore of importance to Sri Lanka as it determines her maritime boundaries and the jurisdictional zones therein. First, an understanding of Sri Lanka’s maritime boundaries must be reached. For Sri Lanka, the law relating to the delimitation of boundaries and jurisdictional zones is set out in the Maritime Zones Law No.22 of 1976, and the Maritime Zones Proclamation made in pursuance of this law. All the measurements related to demarcation of maritime boundaries have to be made from a baseline which is defined as the low water line of the maritime country that is normally used for surveying purposes.

In Sri Lanka, the base points are being gazettes. Sri Lanka possesses a territorial sea up to 12 nautical miles. Nautical terms are an international language. As an island nation Sri Lankans should have some awareness of the nautical terms. It is important to use international terminology for a greater understanding of maritime regulations. Basically, nautical mile is a unit of measurement used in aeronautics and maritime navigation. The nautical mile is longer than a regular mile as it is based on the Earth’s coordination of longitude and latitude, with one nautical mile equal to one minute of latitude. Thus one nautical mile is equals to 1.8 kilometers.

All these marine and maritime activities are being governed by United Nations Convention on Law of the sea. It establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. The first UN Conference on the Law of the Sea took place in Geneva in 1956, was signed by Sri Lanka in 1958. Sri Lanka took the leadership in this formulation and was one of the first signatory for the convention in 1982. And also, Sri Lanka ratified this convention in 1994. It also must be mentioned here that the national maritime jurisdiction under the Maritime Zones Law No. 22 of 1976, is in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This Law provides for the measurement of the territorial sea, passage of foreign ships, powers of the President in respect of the delimitation of zones and declaration of the EEZ, the Pollution Prevention Zone and Historic Waters, delimitation of the Continental Shelf of Sri Lanka with regards to maritime boundaries, and regulation making powers of the Minister.

Sri Lankan territorial sea extends to a limit of 12 nautical miles from the baseline by way of United Nation Convention of Law of the sea (Hereafter referred as UNCLOS Article 4). Within this territorial sea, the coastal State has the full sovereignty over the sea and, on the seabed and subsoil and the air space above it. Beyond the territory sea, there is another corridor named as the Contiguous Zone. The coastal State may exercise enforcement jurisdiction to prevent and punish infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration and sanitary laws and regulations within this zone. This contiguous zone may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines, from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Sri Lanka enjoys the legal rights to exercise its authority under four conditions. Therefore, these four conditions are the fiscal, financial matters, and then their sanitary which is pollution and emigration and immigration and finally the customs. Under these four conditions, Sri Lanka can enjoy exercising its legal rights up to 24 nautical miles, according to UNCLOS Article 33. Beyond these, innovation of 1982 UNCLOS says that there is another zone called ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ which is the area from the baseline up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastal line an extent of 517,000 km2 which is about seven times our landmass and it is a vast area. Within this zone, each coastal state has its sovereign rights to explore and exploit, the living and non-living resources, including fishery resources as per the rights granted by Article 55 of UNCLOS therein.

Beyond the 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone, there’s something called outer limit of continental margin known as ‘Continental shelf’. The continental shelf comprising the seabed and sub-soil of the submarine areas that extend beyond the Territorial Sea throughout the natural prolongation of the land territory up to the outer edge of the continental margin, subject to constraints provided for in the convention, up to a maximum distance of 350 miles from the baseline. In order to achieve that, Sri Lanka made the claim in 2009, and it is still under process. What is different from this continental margin is that Sri Lanka is going to own or working to have its ownership on to the sea bed only, not to the water column. These aspects are becoming closely interconnected, because when the study was carried out on climate change in the Indian Ocean, all these parameters were observed in the sea. Also, the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea that overseas this as the governing body. Any international collaboration on climate change studies is interconnected. For instance, no country can engage itself in conducting any study on the climate change in the northern part of the Indian Ocean circumventing Sri Lanka.

 

India’s maritime doctrine

To address different aspects and developments of maritime affairs that the Indian Ocean requires to be handled by regional bodies as collaboration, required to be handled globally that is very open and broad. But some of the experts are not in Sri Lanka, they are in foreign countries and their expertise is still available. Sri Lanka has its own experts as well, but the island nation needs to enhance its professional understanding. It cannot have a single module to apply to all the issues, knowledge and creativity are required in managing, mitigating in the field of legal, technical experts and scientists, national mechanism, framework and authorities.

Sri Lanka can further enhance the existing expert level. It needs to reach global standards in maritime professionalism, as maritime affairs are global issues and pointed out the obstruction of the Suez Canal by ‘Ever Given’, an Evergreen chartered ship, and how the countries lined up to rescue the ship.

Institutional basis connectivity is still an issue. Most of the maritime institutions are headed by people known to each other, yet there have been no links. Maritime productivity and connectivity have to be brought up to a higher level. We do not need more rules and laws, as excessive new set of rules would hinder the free-flowing activities of the maritime sector.

Further, excessive restrictions would result in Sri Lanka losing clients to its regional peers, such as India and Sri Lanka cannot afford to lose its clients at the moment. To cite an example, if Sri Lanka introduces new restrictions on dangerous cargo aftermath the X-Press Pearl disaster, Sri Lanka would not be able to bring even a firecracker and hence, that opportunity goes India or to another facilitated hub. Sri Lanka should get those opportunities. And also, a responsive mechanism is vitally important and a quick decision-making ability is imperative. Port ratings are higher and Sri Lanka will be looked as a nation that can be responsive fast. Ports are strategic assets to Sri Lanka. Southern section of the Indian Ocean that dictates climatic conditions is very much evident. SL depends on two monsoons; Southwest monsoon brings more water due to atmospheric moisturizing. Inter-cone activity is important, changes in the Bay of Bengal affects all of us equally as it does to many scientific researches in the Indian Ocean.

India has introduced new technology for their fishermen to improve productivity and efficiency in fishing. But in Sri Lanka this hasn’t happened as yet. With this broad understanding, application of this regulatory and monetary framework can be brought in to Sri Lanka. Safety is a responsibility of all the countries, and for Sri Lanka it is significant due to its geographical position. Sri Lanka has a huge responsibility not in financial or physical terms, but as a coordinator, to coordinate the developed and the underdeveloped. Sri Lanka is positioned where the east met the west, traders met their counterparts and hence, it is a matter that its legacy has to be taken to the future. Sri Lanka’s analyzing capacity needs to be more attractive, vigourous and more skilled technicians’ presence is required to keep the maritime sector for its beneficial is imperative and spells importance to everyone, be it a farmer or a fisherman. Belief can be placed on the policy makers so, it will step into broadening its scope of maritime matters, relevant officials and professionals in enhancing the knowledge of maritime affairs, security, and maritime affinity.

 

Rear Admiral Y. N. Jayarathna

(Rear Admiral Y. N. Jayarathna is a retired Sri Lankan naval officer and hydrographer. He served as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy and Joint chief Hydrographer in the Government of Sri Lanka, a former Commandant of the Naval and Maritime Academy and Commanding Officer, 4th Fast Attack Flotilla. He was a member of the Delineation of Outer Continental Margin Project, Advisory group on effect of Sethusamudram Canal Project, Interim Tsunami Warning Committee. He also served as a member in the National Committee on Ocean Science under National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka. After about 36 years of service Rear Admiral YN Jayarathne retired from naval service 21 June 2022. Jayarathna has been awarded the gallantry medals Rana Wickrama Medallions twice and Rana Sura Medallion; the service medals Uttama Seva Padakkama and Sri Lanka Armed Services Long Service Medal with clasp)

Photo Credit – https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/cff/2021/01/12/sri-lanka-and-the-new-cold-war-in-the-indo-pacific-theatre/

 

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