The AMAN-2019 multinational naval exercise held in Karachi, Pakistan concluded recently with participating nations sharing their skills and knowledge in countering transnational security problems such as terrorism, piracy and smuggling, as well as mitigating natural disasters worldwide
The AMAN-2019 multinational naval exercise held in Karachi, Pakistan concluded recently with participating nations sharing their skills and knowledge in countering transnational security problems such as terrorism, piracy and smuggling, as well as mitigating natural disasters worldwide. This year’s event was the sixth edition of the biennial exercise hosted by the Pakistan Navy. The Jakarta Post’s Imanuddin Razak was among dozens of international journalists invited to take a closer look at the organization of the maritime event.
The Indian Ocean has been rapidly becoming a new center of economic gravity as it binds together economic fortunes through its strategic waterways to the other two global oceans — the Atlantic and the Pacific. As a consequence, it is of vital importance that the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) remain a safe and secure place for maritime activities of all nations making use of the region’s waterways.
However, it is without a doubt that the region manifests various symptoms and sources of insecurity. Emerging threats and challenges of the 21st century common to the entire region, ranging from transnational maritime crimes to natural disasters and political instability — inclusive of interstate rivalries — all have the potential to threaten the freedom of navigation of the high seas and simultaneously cripple the world economy.
Modern-era analysis of trends, techniques and the magnitude of challenges have indicated that traditional ways of mitigating these threats and maritime power projection may no longer be valid on account of the vastness of maritime space. It is therefore almost impossible for a single state to handle maritime threats on its own.
Various studies have suggested that a viable collaborative security mechanism, mutual cooperation, the creation of regional frameworks of information sharing and creating broad-based alliances and partnerships are needed to reduce, if not eliminate, the existing threats in the Indian Ocean; thus promoting peace and prosperity in the region.
Pakistan enjoys a very unique geostrategic location close to the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 30 percent of the world’s energy trades. Pakistan’s 90 percent trade is seaborne and almost 100 percent of its energy imports are transported through the sea.
Pakistan, however, realizes that it cannot prosper on its own and needs to collaborate with others. One of the key measures it had taken was the establishment of strategic economic cooperation with China through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), essentially a collection of infrastructure projects, numerous energy projects and special economic zones throughout Pakistan.
Under such circumstances, Pakistan, as a littoral state in the IOR and in view of the gigantic CPEC projects, has interest in having a safe and secure region not only for its own economic and political benefits but also other countries of interest. The Pakistan Navy has been employing a multilateral approach and engaging national and regional stakeholders to fight the prevailing and potential maritime threats in the IOR.
In practice, the Pakistan Navy has contributed significantly to the Enduring Freedom operation, the official name used by the United States government for the global war on terrorism, established the Joint Maritime Information and Coordination Center for information sharing and coordination purposes, and through the most recent initiative in the form of regional maritime security patrol (RMSP) to achieve and sustain maritime order in the region.
Above all the initiatives, hosting the biennial AMAN (or peace in Pakistan’s national Urdu language) multinational naval exercise since 2007 is a regular event that Pakistan — the Pakistan Navy in particular — has continuously organized in its search for collaborative efforts to establish peace and order in the IOR.
“Exercise AMAN is a manifestation of Pakistan’s sincere commitment toward peace and stability, which is aptly reflected in its motto ‘Together for Peace’, bringing the navies of the East and the West together under a common platform for the good of global economies,” Pakistan Navy staff chief Adm. Zafar Mahmood Abbasi told the opening of the International Maritime Conference (IMC) on Feb. 9.
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