{"id":116959,"date":"2021-08-10T16:51:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T23:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116959"},"modified":"2021-08-10T16:51:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T23:51:28","slug":"colombo-security-conclave-expectations-of-bangladesh-to-ensure-regional-maritime-cooperation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/10\/colombo-security-conclave-expectations-of-bangladesh-to-ensure-regional-maritime-cooperation\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombo Security Conclave: Expectations of Bangladesh to ensure Regional Maritime cooperation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pathik hasan<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Colombo\nSecurity Conclave is a greater regional initiative taken by Indi a, Sri Lanka\nand Maldives simultaneously to tackle the maritime threat in Indian ocean. Then\nSri Lankan defence secretary (Now President) Gotabaya Rajapaksa took this\nsignificatory initiative. The head quarter is established in 2020 in Sri Lankan\ncapital city Colombo. Maritime threats matter really in this today\u2019s modern\nworld. Now Indian ocean is a piece of interest amongst world players. The\npowers eye shifts towards India ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyst\nsays, Maritime security and countering terrorism and other crimes in the Indian\nOcean has emerged as a focus area for India as part of its Indo-Pacific\nstrategy and the doctrine of Security and Growth for All in the Region (Sagar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nit is known to all Indian ocean gets it strategic significance for various\nregion. It was a great maritime route for both Asian, European and African\nstated for many years. The Indian ocean has been considered as a hub of\nmaritime connectivity project. China\u2019s string of Pearl project, India\u2019s\nInternational North South Transport Project has been gone though this ocean. It\nis pertinent. Even the US government has transformed its strategy from Asia\nPacific to Indo Pacific to include Indian ocean. Japan and India proposed cotton\nroute is also a big issue in the consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthere are some problems also. Trans national crime such as illegal narcotics,\nweapons and human trafficking issues, piracy, armed robbery, drug smuggling,\nillegal fishing, terrorism, environmental degradation issue is some concern\nissue. The Indian ocean has been used as a safe passage by some evil players. States\non the Indian ocean face these serious challenges every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illegal\ndrug trafficking from India and Afghanistan, Iran through Indian Ocean route is\nknown to all. According to some sources, the UNODC has estimated that 54% of\nthe heroin in India is produced domestically, while 45% originates from\nAfghanistan. India is particularly vulnerable to the southern route due to its\nwestern border with Pakistan. Near this border, in the western Indian states of\nPunjab and Haryana, is where many of the heroin seizures occur. In 2012, 105kg\nof drugs were seized, which had been trafficked from Pakistan along rail\nroutes. In 2013 alone, the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau reported seizures\ntotalling 4,609kg Data collected through seizures by various authorities has\nconfirmed India as a transit country for Southeast Asia, West Africa and North\nAmerica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh\nalso faces significant problems due to drug trade through the Indian Ocean and\nIndia. The country suffers from illicit drug use among its population, such as\nin Dhaka where there are an estimated 2.5 million people using drugs. India is\na large provider of heroin to the Bangladeshi market, and it is trafficked over\nthe western and eastern borders. However, it is unclear whether the heroin\noriginates from Afghanistan or India, as this data has not been sufficiently\ncollected. Both India and Bangladesh are becoming ever more dependent on\nmaritime trade, with these states importing over US$ 52 million and US$ 447\nmillion respectively. Therefore, to function effectively they require an\nabsence of maritime crime in order for trade to be uninterrupted, and for their\neconomies to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh\nfaces Piracy, illegal fishing, human trafficking in the Bay of Bengal. Although\nBangladesh Navy and Coast Guard are very active in the region, but the\nperpetrators are very clever and cunning. Rohingya crisis accelerated to worsen\nthe situation. Various gangs are involved in these human trafficking process.\nIt matters increasingly. Bangladeshi people are trafficked to Malaysia,\nThailand, North Africa to Greece and Italy (Europe) through the marine route\nvia Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nfishermen from Myanmar, India is involved in Illegal fishing in the\nJurisdictional area under Bangladesh. So Bangladesh faces economic loss to\nextract marine resources. Some armed groups kidnap Bangladeshi Fisherman for\nransom. Basically, Fishing in the Sundarbans region becomes very dangerous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka has also faced an increase in heroin use within the country, as well as\nbecoming a transit country for trafficking destined for other places. Much of\nthe heroin entering Sri Lanka arrives on fishing boats or by air, often coming\nthrough India or Pakistan. The numbers of seizures which Sri Lankan authorities\nhave conducted remains relatively small, meaning that the data collected is not\nalways reliable. Smugglers in Sri Lanka have come from a variety of countries,\nincluding Pakistan, India, Iran and the Maldives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental\ndegradation in the sea is common now. Climate change, sea level rising are some\nissue. Trans transnational terrorist threat is seen as a serious threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh\nis a rising South Asian Miracle. The country is developing under the leadership\nof its premier Sheikh Hasina. She focuses on Blue economy. Bangladesh  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the\nthird ministerial conference titled Promoting Sustainable Blue Economy —\nmaking the best use of opportunities from the Indian Ocean\u201d of IORA at the\nInterContinental Dhaka in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not\nonly Bangladesh, Countries like India, Sri Lakka, Maldives including all states\nacross Indian ocean face the same problem. IN the disaster period,  regional cooperation is much needed. In Past,\nregional countries helped each other through various operation during the\ndisaster moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\nBangladesh got a regional platform to address these problems. To ensure better\nmaritime time security, all regional countries should work collaborately to\ntackle the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombo\nSecurity Conclave is a platform. Bangladesh expect cooperation from other stake\nholders and would like to help others to face the challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh with Mauritius\nand Seychelles are going to become full member of regional maritime security\nbloc. Media reports, currently serving as the group\u2019s\nobservers, Bangladesh, Mauritius and Seychelles joined the first meeting of\nnational security advisers (NSA) of the CSC, hosted virtually by Sri Lanka on\nAugust 4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there are some\nopportunities for Bangladesh also other partners to focus on countering\nterrorism and extremism, trans-national crimes such as narcotics, weapons and\nhuman trafficking, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and protecting\nthe maritime environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pathik hasan Colombo Security Conclave is a greater regional initiative taken by Indi a, Sri Lanka and Maldives simultaneously to tackle the maritime threat in Indian ocean. Then Sri Lankan defence secretary (Now President) Gotabaya Rajapaksa took this significatory initiative. The head quarter is established in 2020 in Sri Lankan capital city Colombo. Maritime threats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}