Maritime Cooperation in South Asia

The maritime issues facing South Asia include boundary problems, fisheries conflicts, non-military/non-traditional security threats and environmental problems. This study seeks to facilitate solutions to these problems through regional cooperation. It seeks to base South Asian maritime cooperation on the 1982 Law Of the Sea Convention (LOSC). Given the fact that ships carry much of international trade it posits the emerging regionalization of the South Asian economy under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) Agreement as providing the most fundamental rationale for initiating maritime cooperation under SAARC. Given the slow progress in institutionalizing maritime cooperation within SAARC, this study also considers the possibility of institutionalizing South Asian maritime cooperation independently of SAARC yet complementary to it. This study examines efforts at India-Pakistan and India-Sri Lanka bilateral maritime cooperation, seeking to build South Asian maritime cooperation from the bottom up, based on these two sets of bilateral relationships. Through comparative analysis of efforts at India-Pakistan and India-Sri Lanka bilateral maritime cooperation, fisheries and non-military/non-traditional security cooperation emerged as areas of common to both. This study argues that these areas ought to be included in the evolving agenda for South Asian maritime cooperation. At the same time, given the international character of the maritime domain, efforts must be made to coordinate evolving South Asian maritime cooperation with similar efforts on the neighbouring regions and the world. Published in association with Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo.