The requirement of the Third Line of Defence is a topic for discussion in the maritime sector more specific from the commercial shipping industry which is now hiring the Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSC). Piracy is not new to commercial shipping. Probably piracy started ever since the commercial shipping and the human being has taken to the sea. People say that the very formation of the US marines was a result of US fight against the pirates from Libiya. So it is not something that is new.
But of course what has happened in the last decade is the reason that we have seen the subject being discussed globally. Acts and incidents that happened in the Gulf of Aden or the Horn of Africa somewhere in 2008. We had like 180 odd incidents over a period made the news globally and everybody started talking about this issue. If one has to go by some calculations, they say that Somali piracy has had a negative impact of costing globally to almost 18 billion dollars annually. Of course, as we see now piracy has shifted in Strait of Malacca and in Gulf of Guinea. When Somalis started demanding ransom in lieu of the crew and the cargo, the whole world was shaken and then we had various deliberations at the IMO and at world forums leading to inclusion of article of 100 to 107 about this. This was adopted somewhere in April 2010. The flip side of this Article that we have adopted at IMO only refers to the platform operated by the government or by the military but it does not address the formation and operation by the Private Maritime Security Companies.
So PMSCs today are actually not governed by any international law or regulation. The regulation of the coastal state of each individual country as you enter their coastal waters governs the PMSC. So there is no global monitoring mechanism that controls the PMSC. This is the biggest challenge on our hand. Of course, these companies came together and decided that there has to be some kind of standard practice that they must follow and thereafter they formed a forum called the International Code of Conduct for PMSC and they met regularly to discuss standard operating procedures. But the fact is – they are subject to different regulations when they approach a specific port.
We have seen incidents like Nigerian Navy capturing Russian ship which had almost 100 arms on board. Then we have a risk that these PMSC at times dump the weapons they carry on high seas just before entering the territorial waters. You may have some non state actors following these people who can pick up these arms that are thrown. It is a risk and concern to India because of proximity of the region where these companies are operating. The geographies in which we see the piracy and the threat of piracy, most of them were British colonies in the past. These armed guards come on board in Oman or somewhere in Sri Lanka or somewhere in African coast, we must see these things in perspective. Almost 80% of the PMSC of the world have UK background, 10% US background. Some companies are owned by Indians but since we do not have regulations in place, they are not registered here and are operating from offshore locations. So at one hand we have no regulation in place and on the other hand we have 2 incidents that happened along our coast.
In 2012 we had seen MT Enrica Lexie and 2013 we have seen the incident of MV Seaman Guard Ohio and we have to legitimately debated this issue – do we need a regulation and if so what is the way forward because what is happening is if in 2008-09 and 2010 we had series of incidents, the private guards were paid probably $1000 a day and they used to be on board for 6 to 10 days depending upon the voyage. But nowadays we hear that people are paid a paltry $100 a day. Now if you are paying $100 per day what kind of professional – what kind of security person you will have on board. We have a risk of the trigger friendly guys coming on board and the incidents like MT Enrica Lexie are likely to get repeated.
I am not saying that every time this will be the case. But if this is the situation and happenings, should we not be worried about it? Should Government of India not come out with guidelines, policy and monitoring mechanism? Who is going on board? Who is keeping account of them? What is happening to these people when they are onboard and off hire? Where are the arms/weapons kept? Who is keeping custody of them? So this we thought needs to be discussed. Obviously, there is also an angle that we thought important – we want to engage in blue economy and want to become a dominant force in a good sense. Then we would also require this kind of security personnel with background from Navy or from uniform services because we are now looking at acquiring maritime assets globally whether it is energy or mining for resources, minerals or be it the recent agreement that the Hon’ble Prime Minister signed with Seychelles and other small nations for tourism purposes and for that matter the interest we have in participating in the development and operations of commercial ports globally. If we need a force or security group which can provide security to these maritime assets globally, this can be the opportunity for the people who are retiring with short commission from Army or the Navy to look at a career and may be government can look at this as deployment of these highly profession security experts.
Shri Atul Kulkarni is National Convenor for Maritime Security Study Group of Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS). He is an Advisor (International Projects) at Indian Ports Association with Special focus on opportunities for India to participate in development, operations and maintenance of maritime infrastructure in other geographies. He is independent Management and Strategy Consultant in Infrastructure domain with special focus on Maritime Industry. Shri Atul Kulkarni is serving as an Advisor to Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas GOI for developing the strategies and policies for development and improvement of ports and shipping infrastructure in India. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of a Greenfield Cargo Terminal and Ship Repair Facility on the west coast of India.
