The evolving role of the Colombo Security Conclave (GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- In early December, India’s National Security Adviser (NSA) took part in the sixth NSA meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC).
- It is imperative for India to continue pushing for a proactive CSC to address the challenges in the Indian Ocean.
Details:
- The meeting reviewed the developments and progress made by the CSC in 2022 and agreed upon a road map for the year 2024 to promote a safe, secure, and stable Indian Ocean.
- The meeting also included member-states, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, and observer-states, Bangladesh and Seychelles.
- The Maldives, now under a new dispensation, was the only member-state that was absent, underscoring the impact of domestic politics over regional collaboration.
Evolving dynamics:
- The organisation came into its own in 2011, with Sri Lanka joining India and the Maldives for a trilateral maritime security grouping but came to a standstill after 2014 due to rising tensions between India and the Maldives.
- In 2020, India not only pushed for the revival and institutionalisation of the organisation but also expressed interest in expanding the CSC to Mauritius, the Seychelles, and Bangladesh. The push for the CSC demonstrates India’s evolving strategic vision for the Indian Ocean.
- The Indian Ocean is at the heart of an evolving multipolar world today, with extra-regional powers competing to make inroads in the region. This competition will further increase as the Indo-Pacific’s importance grows.
Opportunity for India:
- The lack of capacity of island nations to secure the seas and counter transnational threats has continued to motivate India to assist them in defence and security-related capacity building, infrastructure development, and equipment provision.
- India has also played a vital role as the first responder in the region, be it to avert coups or to offer humanitarian and economic assistance during COVID-19 and multi-faceted crises.
- The CSC offers India an opportunity to institutionalise its role, shape the regional security architecture, and better address the existing and emerging threats.
China factor:
- Since the early 2000s, Chian has invested substantively in the Indian Ocean with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, helping it access the Indian Ocean.
- China’s outreach to the Indian Ocean is to control the crucial sea lines of communication and trade and to limit India’s influence and presence. Today, China is not only strengthening its naval capabilities; it also maintains strong defence relationships with states in the Indian Ocean region and also conducts regular maritime exercises in the Ocean.
- It has established a base in Djibouti and controls Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. It continues to use scientific ships to map the Indian Ocean bed.
- Finally, it also wants to counter the prevailing security architecture in the Indian Ocean by institutionalising its presence through platforms such as the Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation.
Pillars:
- The CSC has focused on five pillars; maritime security and safety; countering terrorism and radicalisation; trafficking and transnational crime; cyber-security and protecting critical infrastructure, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
- It is with these sectors of cooperation that India hopes to better understand and respond to threats from the Indian Ocean and continue being a preferred partner for the Indian Ocean states.
- This strategic accommodation and flexibility is contributing to the security of the Indian Ocean. Since 2021, the CSC has investigated terrorism and terror financing, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime and security, marine pollution, maritime law, and coastal security.
Engagements:
- In 2022, for the first time, the organisation held a conference of oceanographers and hydrographers and another conference on coastal security.
- The next iterations of these conferences are scheduled for 2024. Joint working groups have already been established, or are being finalised, on terrorism, cyber-security, humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR), trafficking and transnational organised crimes.
- Apart from regular NSA and Deputy NSA meetings, the countries are collaborating on capacity-building in sectors such as counter-terrorism, police, law enforcement, and cyber-security.
Way Forward:
- For India, whose ambitions, responsibilities, and threats have increased significantly in the last decade, the CSC will remain an important instrument to help it consolidate its regional leadership.
India closer to new drone power
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- Bengaluru-based NewSpace Research and Technologies Pvt Ltd (NRT) announced recently that its long-endurance drone, the solar-powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS), had carried out its first flight lasting over 21 hours.
- The development comes as a big fillip to India’s plan to have its own long-endurance drones capable of flying in the stratosphere.
iDEX initiative:
- The project is being spearheaded under the Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative of the defence ministry.
- Under this, NRT has signed a contract for an initial proof-of-concept demonstrator, which targets a solar-powered flight lasting longer than 48 hours.
Make I project:
- The IAF has included HAPS under a Rs 1,000 crore ‘Make I project’ of the Government of India. This means that 70 percent of the funding will come from the government.
Key Features:
- The flight included both day and night flying, with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) using solar energy for travel during the day and using its solar-charged battery for flying at night.
- The plan is to have it fly in the stratosphere at about 65,000 feet, above air traffic. For context, commercial aircraft typically fly between 31,000 and 38,000 feet, or at about 5.9 to 7.2 miles.
- Since the HAPS operates on solar power, it can continue to fly for months.
- Running exclusively on solar power and flying above the weather at 16-20 km autonomously for months at a stretch, a HAPS platform will fill a capability gap between satellites and HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) UAVs.
- HAPS is ultra-lightweight but has a strong body with the ability to take onboard batteries and other systems. As the battery technology improves, the endurance would also grow.
India’s first stratospheric vehicle:
- The HAPS UAV is part of a new genre of solar-powered platforms being designed across the world for persistent surveillance, communications, and specialist science missions.
- Both the IAF and the Navy are on board with the project and are looking at acquiring this capability in the short term as well as in the long term.
Payloads:
- The intended surveillance payloads for HAPS include electro-optical/ infra-red (EO/IR) solutions, synthetic aperture radars (SAR) besides communication payloads — including range extenders, electronic intelligence (ELINT) and electronic warfare (EW).
- The existing technology limits of the ISR payloads for HAPS allow observations of up to 80-100 km from stratospheric altitudes, which is 2-3 times more as offered by MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) UAVs. ISR, or Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), is vital for military operations.
Potential:
- The HAPS technology will offset the lack of critical ISR gap felt during the Doklam crisis, the Balakot incident, and the ongoing crisis in Ladakh.
- The Navy will be an immediate beneficiary since this allows continuous low-cost manning of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
- The civilian use of HAPS is equally important since it can provide telecommunication connectivity all over India especially in regions with patchy terrestrial network issues because of the challenges of terrain and costs.
