Understanding Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean: Challenges for Pakistan

Abstract

The Indian Ocean is one of the most critical maritime regions in the world today, given its centrality for trade, energy transportation, and geopolitical competition. Indian Ocean accounts for about 80 percent of the world's seaborne oil supplies and almost one-third of international maritime commerce passes through Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Malacca known as Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs). As a result, maritime security has become an integral part of national security, economic development and regional peace and stability. The Indian Ocean, with its geographical location and its growing maritime jurisdiction, Gwadar Port and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a strategic and economic opportunity for Pakistan. Pakistan has multifaceted traditional and non-traditional security challenges in the maritime domain. The key challenges for India are traditional ones such as maritime boundary disputes, strategic competition in the Arabian Sea and maritime modernization. Maritime terrorism, piracy, illegal fishing, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling, vulnerabilities of port infrastructure to cyber attacks, marine pollution and environmental degradation caused by climate change are all non-traditional threats. At the same time, amongst major powers, the United States, China and India have witnessed a growing competition, leading to greater militarization of the Indian Ocean and complicating the maritime security landscape in Pakistan. In this paper, the concept of maritime security has been critically reviewed, the geopolitical importance of the Indian Ocean has been highlighted, and Pakistan's maritime interests have been analyzed in the context of maritime security. A qualitative research methodology has been used in this study that relies on secondary sources like scholarly books, peer-reviewed journal articles, policy reports and official documents to study the emerging maritime security challenges faced by Pakistan. The paper also reviews the maritime strategy and Pakistan's naval capabilities and involvement in regional and international maritime security efforts.

Keywords: Maritime Security, Indian Ocean, Pakistan Navy, Gwadar Port, CPEC, Indo-Pacific, Blue Economy, Sea Lines of Communication.