Indian Ocean issues

US President Barack Obama visited the port city of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory last Thursday. The town was practically closed down as part of the measures for the visiting potentate’s security - which included a $ 50,000 insurance policy in case of a crocodile attack.

The reason for the visit was the declaration by Obama on Wednesday that Darwin would be a station for up to 2,500 US military personnel as well as ships and aircraft. It is part of a US military build-up, which includes the nearby Tindal airbase and the Stirling naval base near Perth.

The move has upset China, against whom the action is broadly assumed to be aimed. Obama’s remarks at Wednesday’s Canberra news conference included hints that he felt China did not ‘play by the rules of the road’.

According to the authoritative People’s Daily, Beijing was concerned about the US expansion and analysts were warning of an attempt to box China in with military bases. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weiminon questioned whether strengthening military alliances was the best idea in a period of global economic unrest.

Peace zone

It has also caused ripples in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa warned that ‘a vicious cycle of tensions’ could result.

TB Hasanuddin of the Indonesian Parliamentary Commission on Defence, Foreign Affairs and Information thought the US needed to explain the deployment to ASEAN countries. He said ‘The placement of 2,500 US mariners in Darwin would create new tension in ASEAN which has been known as peace zone, not a conflict zone’.

Australian peace activists are apprehensive lest it make Australia a potential target if case of exacerbated tensions in the region. They also worry that it would enable the US to stockpile internationally prohibited cluster bombs in their country. The US has been moving recently to have the ban on the weapons removed.

There is also apprehension that the move may be a precursor to an attack on Iran, ostensibly because of its alleged nuclear weapons programme. The American inability to reduce its dependence on petroleum has given it an ever-growing hunger for mineral oil resources.

Global trade

Critics have noted that Obama was playing to the Anglo-Australian gallery, his speeches laden with terms in the Aussie vernacular and appealing to the symbolism of a ‘shared heritage’ and ‘shared sacrifice’ while deliberately excluding China as well as ‘New Australians’.

For his part, Obama attempted to justify his action by asserting it was important for the protection of commercial marine traffic. ‘This region,’ said Obama in the course of his address in Darwin, ‘has some of the busiest sea lanes in the world, which are critical to all our economies.’

Obama’s remarks throughout his visit stressed America’s status as an ‘Asia-Pacific’ power. However, none of the three bases are on the Pacific littoral of Australia, but on the Indian Ocean. Significantly, Darwin was chosen over Queensland’s Townsville, which is definitely on the Pacific shore.

The new deployment has underlined the growing importance of the Indian Ocean. As Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said, ‘40 percent of global trade passes through the Indian Ocean, including 70 percent of the total traffic of petroleum products’.

Rudd was acknowledging the rising significance of the Indian Ocean area coincidental with his participation in the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Indian Ocean Rim Association of Regional Countries (IOR-ARC) held in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Climate change

Rudd conceded that the Indian Ocean Rim accounted for only 10 percent of the world’s GDP, but stressed that this was rising. His country, too has appreciated the IOR’s potential practically by building a new port at Darwin to supplement its only major Indian Ocean general cargo port at Fremantle.

The growing Australian emphasis on the Indian Ocean was revealed when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that she would seek the support of her Labour Party to end the ban on exports of uranium to India, which has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Nick Bryant, writing in the Lowy Institute for International Policy’s ‘The Interpreter’, said that:

‘The overturning of the uranium ban would also pave the way for a new triangular frame in which Australia relies for its security on America, its prosperity on China and looks to India for a combination of the two.’

The aggravated tensions in the Indian Ocean are the worst since Sri Lanka proposed it become a ‘zone of peace’ in the mid-1970s. There is added urgency to the need, advocated by Rudd, for the IOR-ARC to be transformed into a regional body consistent with the Ocean’s importance.

Rudd suggested that specific issues that needed to be worked on immediately were ‘sustainable fisheries management; science cooperation on climate change, food security and ocean science; disaster management; maritime safety and security; trade facilitation; and resources and energy security.’

Sino-Indian border

The suggestion of the Pakistan Navy’s Rear Admiral Khan Hasham bin Saddique’ during the ‘Galle Dialogue 2011’, which concluded on Tuesday, that there be increased security cooperation in the Indian Ocean, should perhaps be tagged on to Rudd’s list.

Sri Lanka is positioned in an enviable position, both geographically and politically. Not only is the island right in the centre of the Indian Ocean, it is also equidistant in terms of friendship with all the major players in the region.

Historically, this enabled the country to maintain good relations with both sides of many enmities, for example China and India. Following the Sino-Indian border war of 1962, Colombo was the venue of the multi-party mediation efforts, which proved (alas) abortive - although the initiatives which resulted were accepted by both sides.

Sri Lanka should therefore step into the breach once more and attempt to establish the framework for mending fences in the Indian Ocean. It is right and proper that the island should provide the location of an Indian Ocean Secretariat to oversee all aspects of cooperation in the region.