Apr 5, 2011

India - Thailand Maritime Cooperation

Prime Minister of Thailand HE Abhisit Vejjajiva was on a state visit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of India on 5 April. This would be his first visit to India. He led a delegation that includes the Foreign Minister of Thailand, the President of Thai Trade Representative, Secretary-General to the Prime Minister, Vice-Minister in the Prime Minister ‘s Office, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a number of other senior officials.

A Statement by the Indian Prime Minister to media during visit of Prime Minister of Thailand indicated the security contours of the trip thus - India and Thailand have active exchanges in the fields of defence, counter-terrorism and security. We have agreed to further strengthen them, and to initiate a senior official level dialogue between our Defence Ministries. We both expressed our desire to cooperate with each other to secure the vital sea-lanes of communications which pass through the Indian Ocean. We have identified other areas of cooperation such as space technology, disaster management and science and technology.

Thailand is effectively a neighbour of India as per the Ministry of Defence Spokesperson Mr Vishnu Prakash. We share a maritime boundary. India and Thailand share a maritime boundary. We have similar challenges and concerns. And it is natural that we coordinate and cooperate in areas of security and defence, which includes joint exercises, coordinated patrolling, ship calls, training of officers in each other’s armed forces institutions, and so on.

The coordinated patrolling is taking place already. That is for the simple reason that we share a maritime boundary, we have similar concerns on issues like counter-terrorism, piracy and smuggling. The coordinated patrolling has been found useful by both sides.

Security and defence is one area which both sides are looking at enhancing cooperation . We mentioned the joint patrolling. We have joint exercises. There are regular port calls by ships from both countries. We have exchange of representatives of the armed forces on both sides. There is joint training in each other’s armed forces institutions. So, in short, both India and Thailand do find that security and defence cooperation is of mutual benefit

The Responses during a Press Conference by the Ministry of External Affairs are as under-

Question: Can you identify the maritime areas where patrolling is going on?

Joint Secretary (South): The north of Bay of Bengal. Once you have a look at the map you will realize that Thailand occupies a very strategic position as far as the Straits of Malacca are concerned. So, this is the area where the Naval passage and for commercial shipping it is extremely important. These are the areas.

Official Spokesperson: And in addition, piracy. I think piracy is an issue which concerns not just India but Thailand and a number of other countries. Our Navy has come to the rescue of Thai sailors some of who have been abducted by the Somali pirates in the last few years.

Conclusion - While maritime cooperation has been rightly identified as the key area of cooperation, large number of Thai trawlers in the Northern Indian Ocean who are susceptible to piracy could also be one of the areas where there could be some coordination.