SHANTI Maritime Security Framework: Significance & Challenges

Recently, India unveiled SHANTI, advancing rules-based maritime governance and cooperative security across the Bay of Bengal and Indo-Pacific.

About SHANTI Maritime Security Framework

• Meaning: SHANTI (Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity) is India’s normative framework for rules-based maritime governance.
  • It promotes trust, resilience, and cooperative security in shared maritime spaces across the Bay of Bengal and Indo-Pacific.
• Core Philosophy: Shifts from maritime competition to cooperation, deterrence to resilience, power projection to shared responsibility, and crisis response to governance.
• Objectives: Promote norms, trust, maritime security, disaster resilience, domain awareness, and a free, inclusive, rules-based Indo-Pacific.

Evolution of India’s Maritime Vision

• SAGAR (2015): Advanced Security and Growth for All, establishing India as the Indian Ocean’s preferred security partner.
• MAHASAGAR (2025): Expanded maritime cooperation across the Indo-Pacific, integrating Global South priorities with regional security partnerships.
• SHANTI (2026): Institutionalises norms, trust, and integrity, prioritising maritime commons governance over geopolitical competition and rivalry.

Bay of Bengal is Central to SHANTI Maritime Security Framework

• Strategic Gateway: Connects India’s Act East Policy with ASEAN and the Malacca Strait, carrying nearly 25% of global traded goods.
• Economic Hub: Supports the Blue Economy, major ports like Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Chattogram and Yangon, and vital energy-shipping networks.
• Disaster Hotspot: Among the world’s most cyclone-prone regions, regularly facing cyclones, storm surges, tsunamis, coastal erosion, and sea-level rise.
• Geopolitical Theatre: China’s “Malacca Dilemma” and expanding BRI-linked ports have intensified strategic competition across the Bay of Bengal.

Significance of the SHANTI Framework

• Regional Leadership: Positions India as the preferred security partner and first responder, demonstrated through Operation Brahma (Myanmar, 2025) and regional HADR missions.
• Indo-Pacific Vision: Strengthens Act East Policy, Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (2019), and cooperation with ASEAN for a free Indo-Pacific.
• Strategic Balance: Offers a rules-based, inclusive alternative to power-centric maritime competition amid China’s expanding BRI-linked port network.
• BIMSTEC Integration: Enhances cooperation among BIMSTEC members, including the first joint maritime security exercise (2026).
• Blue Economy Growth: Advances sustainable fisheries, resilient ports, and ocean governance, supporting the USD 2.5 trillion global ocean economy.

Challenges to SHANTI Maritime Security Framework

• Institutional Fragmentation: Overlapping mechanisms including BIMSTEC, IORA, and ASEAN often lack coordinated maritime governance.
• Capacity Gaps: Smaller littoral states face limited naval, surveillance, and disaster-response capabilities, constraining effective regional maritime cooperation.
• Climate Vulnerability: The Bay of Bengal, among the world’s most cyclone-prone regions, experiences frequent cyclones, storm surges, and coastal erosion.
• Maritime Threats: Rising IUU fishing, trafficking, piracy, cyberattacks, and undersea cable vulnerabilities increasingly threaten regional maritime security and trade.

Way Forward for the SHANTI Maritime Security Framework

• BIMSTEC Integration: Institutionalise SHANTI through BIMSTEC members, including regular maritime security dialogues and joint naval exercises.
• Maritime Awareness: Expand White Shipping Agreements, AI-enabled Maritime Domain Awareness, and IFC-IOR real-time information sharing across the Indo-Pacific.
• Regional HADR: Establish a permanent Bay of Bengal HADR mechanism, building on the 2026 BIMSTEC maritime security exercise and disaster coordination.
• Blue Economy: Promote sustainable fisheries, resilient ports, and marine conservation, supporting the USD 2.5 trillion global ocean economy.
• Rules-Based Order: Uphold UNCLOS (1982), freedom of navigation, peaceful dispute resolution, and satellite-enabled maritime surveillance for secure sea lanes.

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam extends from land to the oceans.“ SHANTI positions India as a responsible maritime stakeholder, advancing peace, prosperity, and sustainable governance across the Indo-Pacific.

Reference: The Hindu

PMF IAS Pathfinder for Mains – Question 768

Q. In the backdrop of evolving Indo-Pacific geopolitics and emerging non-traditional maritime threats, critically examine the objectives and significance of India’s SHANTI Maritime Security Framework. Also discuss the challenges in its implementation. (250 Words) (15 Marks)

Approach

• Introduction: Write a brief introduction about the SHANTI maritime security framework.
• Body: Write the key objectives and significance of India’s SHANTI maritime security framework. Also discuss the challenges in its implementation and the way forward.

• Conclusion: Emphasise rules-based maritime governance, cooperative security, and regional resilience to safeguard India’s Indo-Pacific strategic interests.