Honourable Union Minister for Shipping, Shri GK Vasan, Secretary, Ministry of
Shipping, Shri K Mohandas, Director General Shipping, Dr. SB Agnihotri, distinguished
members of the shipping industry, fellow seafarers, members of the media, esteemed
guests, ladies and gentlemen.
At the outset, I thank DG Shipping, Dr. SB Agnihotri, for inviting me to deliver the
keynote address today. As a seafarer myself, I am happy to be in the presence of others of the fraternity on this important occasion. As all of you are aware, seafarers have facilitated maritime trade, civilisational contacts and new discoveries since time immemorial, even at the cost of enduring difficult conditions and facing grave physical hazards.
Modern seafarers are no different. They form a crucial element of the global
economic system, while braving risks, pressures and hardships that are unique to a life at sea. As the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Mr.Efthimios Mitropoulos said, without the contribution of seafarers, half the world would freeze and the other half would starve. I am therefore happy that the critical contribution of seafarers to global trade, international stability and the civil society as a whole will be celebrated as the ''Day of the Seafarer'' on 25 June every year. I applaud the decision of the IMO and International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) that made this possible.
You are all aware that historically, India has been a seafaring nation with trade
and commerce at the forefront of her maritime endeavour. In fact, Indian trade was so extensive around 70 AD that the Roman Governor, Pliny the Elder, wrote that as many as 125 Indian ships usually lay in the ports of Egypt and Rome. As late as the fourteenth century, Marco Polo remarked that Indian ships were built to last a 100 years, and that some were large enough to require crews of 150 to 300 men. India’s share of world economy was nearly 30% from 1 AD to 1200 AD. By 1700 AD, it had reduced to 24%, and owing to the measures taken during British occupation, Indian merchant marine declined further. Against about 34,500 Indian ships that entered and cleared Indian ports in 1857, only about 1700 did so in 1900. Mahatma Gandhi summed it up thus: ‘Indian shipping had to perish so that British shipping might flourish’. By 1947, Indian merchant marine had declined to only 11 oceangoing ships and a total tonnage of only about 73000. In retrospect, the decline in maritime activity from about 1200 AD translated into our inability to contest European control of the Indian Ocean in the eighteenth century.
Today, after nearly two centuries, resurgent India marches ahead to reclaim her
historical maritime stature and take her rightful place in the comity of nations. Maritime trade is the key enabler of our economic growth and the modern seafarer as its facilitator occupies centre stage in our nation’s prosperity. Currently, we have a total of 349 oceangoing and 722 coastal ships; nearly 6% of the seafarers plying the ocean routes are Indian; about 90% of our international trade is carried by sea; and millions of Indians rely on ships to transport a great multitude of commodities, fuel, foodstuffs, goods and products that touch their daily lives. It, therefore, gives me great pleasure to pay tribute to Indian seafarers for their substantial contribution to national development.
At the same time, this occasion provides us opportunity to deliberate on a
contemporary issue of great relevance to the seafaring community - the rise of the
scourge of piracy.
Maritime piracy demands concerted international attention today not only because
it enmeshes security perceptions with complex socio-economic, legal and humanitarian
issues, but also because it threatens the shipping industry seriously. It is only
appropriate, therefore, that the IMO has declared "Piracy: Orchestrating the
Response" as the theme for World Maritime Day 2011.
This distinguished audience would know that piracy is not a modern phenomenon.
The Roman lawmaker, Cicero, termed it ‘a crime against civilisation’ about 2000 years ago. While piracy figures prominently in the annals of many European tales, its occurrence off the Horn of Africa finds historical mention, with the classical Greek text,Periplus of the Eritrean Sea, and Ptolemy’s classic, Geographia, revealing its existence in 1 AD and 150 AD respectively.
The Gulf of Aden-Somalia region is notorious once again today, as the dominant
hotspot for piracy. In 2011, there have been a total of 243 piracy attacks worldwide
resulting in 26 hijackings, of which 21 have occurred off Somalia. Today, Somali pirates hold a total of 20 vessels and 451 personnel hostage. Navies of several nationalities have been deployed in the region since 2008 on anti-piracy duties. Today, between 30 and 40 warships patrol these waters, revealing that their presence has brought down the success rates of hijacking in 2009 and 2010.
The economic cost of piracy, from waylaid vessels, delayed shipments and idle
crews is substantial. Ransoms, insurance premia, deterrent equipment, re-routing of
vessels, piracy prosecutions, and running costs of anti-piracy organisations add to the economic burden. It is estimated that maritime piracy costs the world economy about $12 billion each year. This is substantial.
The manner in which the other piracy hotspot - South East Asia - tackled this
problem holds out a lesson for the Horn of Africa. The pirate activity reported in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in the late 1990s and the early part of this century saw significant reduction owing to a series of measures conceived and implemented with the co-operation and support of littoral states. The Malacca Strait Patrols launched jointly in 2004 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, was one important measure. The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia or ReCAAP, of which India is a member, was another that curbed piracy through effective information sharing. Such initiatives highlight that piracy is best tackled as a shared security threat and a multilateral challenge. That more than 25 countries are participating in anti-piracy efforts
off the Horn of Africa highlights its continuing international character.
The response of the international community on piracy is therefore based on
collaboration, which is best represented by the work of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, or CGPCS, the principal forum for international cooperation and information-sharing, under the aegis of the United Nations. The CGPCS was created in 2009, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1851. Following its first meeting in 2009, four Working Groups were established to address military and operational coordination, capacity building, judicial matters, shipping self-awareness and public information.
It is widely understood that the ultimate solution to piracy does not lie at sea.
Piracy at sea is only the manifestation of socio-political inequalities and insecurities ashore. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said, “Piracy is not a water-borne disease”, but a spill-over of governance deficit, complex socio-economic dynamics and lawlessness. However, it is a fact that the international community needs to contain the spread of piracy and render the high seas safe from its adverse impacts.
Let me briefly touch upon five issues that need to be addressed in doing so.
The first pertains to legal conviction of apprehended pirates. India is currently
guiding nearly 120 pirates through a judicial process. Whereas naval operations can
prevent piracy attempts or apprehend pirates at sea, their conviction by courts of law is important to reinforce the sense of security amongst those who put to sea legitimately and deter those who do so otherwise. Many navies adopt a ‘catch and release’ methodology that feeds pirates back into the system because they lack legal provisions to initiate action against them. The absence of a common legal policy amongst nations inevitably hinders the international objective of stamping out maritime piracy.
Second, a vast majority of those apprehended constitute lower-end operatives,
whereas there are no means to catch ‘bigger players’. International effort must address this shortcoming and evolve mechanisms to target the handlers, planners, managers and financers of the long and elusive piracy chain.
The third challenge pertains to ransoms. Refusal to pay ransoms is not in the
interest of hostages. However, it is a sad reality that the lure of large sums of money has a corruptive influence and drives the economically or socially marginalised towards crime. It also reinforces piracy and upward spirals of ransom demands. Higher demands lead to protracted negotiation, resulting in increased human suffering. In fact, a striking feature of Somali piracy has been hostage-taking for ransom, which perhaps makes it akin to maritime kidnapping. Unlike pirate attacks in the Straits of Malacca or off the coast of Nigeria, where ships are boarded with the intent of armed robbery, Somali pirates take merchant ship crews as hostage with a demand for ransom. This is possible
because pirates find sanctuary in Somalia and its territorial waters and can hold hijacked ships there for indefinite periods awaiting termination of ransom negotiations. Today, the average duration of negotiation has increased. While the average captivity period was 55 days in 2009, crews are now being held for as long as three to four months. In the recent case of MV Suez, the ship and her crew were in captivity for over 300 days.
While piracy tends to be discussed only in economic terms, of serious concern are
its human dimensions - the trauma experienced by seafarers and their families during
periods of captivity. There is evidence that a number of seafarers held captive are illtreated.
The suffering endured by such seafarers is immeasurable and recent instances
of violent assault and torture deserve the severest condemnation. This is a new trend and a serious concern for us seafarers.
Fourth, hostage situations demand a coherent policy response. However, the
global nature of modern shipping presents to this an unintended challenge. A ship today may be owned by a company in one country, fly the flag of another, charter for a company in a third, and have a crew representing many other nations. Not the most ideal condition. As a consequence, responses to a hijack take more time than desirable to crystallise, owing to complex inter-governmental and interagency consultations.
The fifth issue - one that reveals a sense of encouragement - is that many ships
have escaped capture by implementing preventive and self-protection measures
recommended by the IMO and the shipping industry. The industry needs to ensure that
such measures are widely implemented. Its comprehensive guidance document,
commonly known as "Best Management Practices" for merchant ships, suggests
methods and measures to prevent, deter and defeat pirate attacks. Surveys suggest that ships that conform to these are far less susceptible to pirate attack. For instance, operating at high speeds or with higher freeboards, or with crews taking shelter in "Safe Houses" or "Citadels" during attacks has proven to be successful in preventing hijack in several cases. In fact, in my view, provision of a "Safe House" or "Citadel" is an extremely effective self-protection measure against piracy and I have repeatedly recommended it for implementation onboard all Indian flagged ships. Use of armed guards by ships is another means of improving their onboard security. A policy for deploying armed security guards on Indian flag ships is being examined by the Government and would provide a credible measure of protection, once implemented.
But I emphasise that such personnel will need to be security-cleared and well-trained before being positioned as armed guards on our merchant ships.
While we grapple with these five issues at multiple levels, the Indian Navy
continues to spearhead the nation’s anti-piracy endeavour. The Navy is an active
participant in anti-piracy operations in South East Asia as well as off the Horn of Africa.
We also have a ship deployed continuously in the Gulf of Aden that has escorted more
than 1600 merchant ships safely thus far, including about 190 Indian flagged ships. It is a matter of great satisfaction for us that no ship under Indian Navy escort has been hijacked till today. The Navy collaborates actively with other maritime forces in the region to co-ordinate anti-piracy assistance and provide credible military presence to deter piracy and maritime terrorism.
There may not always be the physical presence of an Indian warship at the scene
of any incident. However, I would like to assure you that our Operations Room is on a 24X7 alert and constantly tracks the movements of merchant ships in the area,
particularly those released from captivity. We are also in constant touch with other
navies operating ships in the region – and the nearest warship, irrespective of
nationality, is requested to offer assistance, when required, and all navies have been most forthcoming.
Our Navy is also an active participant in the Working Group on Military and
Operational coordination at the CGCPS.
In end 2010, it became clear to naval analysts that pirates had changed their
tactics and began using hijacked merchant ships as mother ships to carry out attacks at
ranges as extended as about 1000 nm from the Somali coast. This manifested in the
form of increased piracy incidents in an area West of the Lakshadweep Islands in Nov-Dec last year. In response, the Navy increased its anti-piracy deployment in the area significantly, and as a consequence, intercepted four pirate mother ships, apprehended 120 pirates and rescued 43 hostages in 2011. One can say with certainty today that because of the Navy’s proactive approach, piracy incidents East of 65°E Longitude have decreased by nearly 70%.
We in the Navy understand that as a leading seafaring nation and a net security
provider in the Indian Ocean, India has significant stake in preserving the freedom of the seas. I take this opportunity to assure our seafaring community that the Indian Navy will continue to do its utmost to ensure the safety of our seafarers and our seaborne commerce, and protect national and international shipping and other forms of maritime activity in our waters.
I once again laud the tremendous role played by our seafarers in sustaining the
nation’s economic lifelines and in staying at the frontline of our battle against seaborne threat and piracy. Their welfare and safety must be of priority to us. I commend the DG Shipping for his determination to bring this issue to prominence in 2011 and reiterate my personal support to this important initiative.
With these words, I thank DG Shipping for giving me this opportunity to be here
today and wish the organisers of this important event all success in their endeavours.
Thank you. Jai Hind.
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