If you are aspiring to be a global power then behave as a global power. We must enhance the anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden region.
Thus, the Indian government is not directly in picture; its responsibility is that of a moral one. And on this, as external affairs minister S M Krishna has pointed out, the government has not been lacking. It has consistently talked with the concerned countries – Egypt and the UAE in the cases of MV Suez and Rak Afrikana respectively.
But then, many security experts are of the opinion that India should not go by technicalities since the hostages happen to be Indians. Their argument is that since the government has the fundamental responsibility of securing the lives and properties of all its citizens, irrespective of their locations, the Indian Navy, one of the most powerful ones in the world, can always rescue the hostages by resorting to force with the pirates. This is particularly so when Somalia does not have an effective government for years. Even otherwise, since most of the ships are hijacked in international water, there will be no violation of international law if the Indian navy applies force for rescuing Indian citizens. It is a question of using your power, so the argument runs. After all, if American Special Forces could attack vehicles in Somalia carrying members of al-Qaida’s Somalia and Kenya branch on September 14, 2009 as retaliation to the al-Qaida’s attacks on US embassy in Kenya in 1998, India can likewise force against the Somalian pirates. And it is all the more so when the world does not have any effective anti-piracy laws.
I think there are enough merits in the above argument. If you are aspiring to be a global power then behave as a global power. We must enhance the anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden region. Simultaneously, we should work with the like-minded Gulf States to evolve a regional cooperative mechanism, a pattern that should also be replicated in the littoral countries in South East Asia.
As it is, a rising India has vital stakes in the Indian Ocean, particularly in the stretch between the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Malacca. Because, nearly 95% of India’s trade by volume and 77 % by value are seaborne. 40% of the seaborne trade transits through the Strait of Malacca and about 50 % through the Gulf of Aden region. Further, India has the seventeenth largest merchant fleet in the world, providing over 7% of the manpower (approximately 100,000 seafarers) to the global shipping industry. Therefore, we can no longer remain passive in the face of the treats to our shipping fleet, seaborne trade and seafarers.
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