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Antony in Japan, holds talks on maritime security

by statesman news service - 09/30/2011

"NEW DELHI, 3 NOV: Maritime security, anti-piracy measures, freedom of navigation and maintaining the security of sea lanes of communication to facilitate unhindered trade by the sea routes-are some of the issues that dominated the India-Japan defence ...."

NEW DELHI, 3 NOV: Maritime security, anti-piracy measures, freedom of navigation and maintaining the security of sea lanes of communication to facilitate unhindered trade by the sea routes-are some of the issues that dominated the India-Japan defence ministers’ meeting in Tokyo last night.
The delegation-level talks, led by the defence minister, Mr AK Antony, and his Japanese counterpart, Mr Yasuo Ichikawa, recognised the importance of sea lanes and decided to “actively pursue consultations and cooperation in the field of maritime security both bilaterally and in association with all other countries in the region”.
The Indian delegation included the defence secretary, Mr Shashi Kant Sharma, the Indian ambassador to Japan, Mr Aloke Prasad, the Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral RK Dhowan and GoC-in-C, Central Command, Lt Gen VK Ahluwalia.
Mr Antony said maritime security challenges are becoming increasingly complex and varied and India has substantially increased its anti-piracy deployment in the East Arabian Sea since November 2010. He, however, felt that concerted efforts of the world community, under a UN mandate, are necessary to effectively address the problem.
“There is a need to not only have a legal framework for prosecuting the pirates, but concerted efforts are also necessary to track the money-trail and to stop it from being channelised for funding terrorist activities, worldwide,” he said.
Expressing happiness that both navies are exchanging escort schedules of their naval vessels deployed in the region to coordinate the anti-piracy efforts, he hoped that the respective organisations from both sides, MLIT and DG Shipping, would be able to establish a mechanism to share the escort schedules with the merchant ships flagged with them.
Mr Antony said the other serious issue in maritime security concerns the freedom of navigation and maintaining the security of the sea lanes of communication (SLOC) to facilitate unhindered trade by the sea routes. This is of vital importance to all countries which depend on maritime trade. “India supports freedom of navigation in international waters and the rights of passage in accordance with accepted principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS]. These principles should be respected by all,” he said.
Mr Antony said India-Japan defence cooperation is “geared towards peace and prosperity of the region and is transparent”. Both sides will carry out mutual visits of vessels and aircraft and conduct bilateral exercise between MSDF and the Indian Navy.

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