Bay of Bengal: India’s Strategic SHANTI Anchor

Context

The Bay of Bengal serves as India’s strategic anchor by linking South and Southeast Asia, offering an ideal testing ground for cooperative maritime security, regional economic integration through BIMSTEC, and operationalising India’s newly introduced SHANTI framework. 

SHANTI Framework

The External Affairs Minister of India introduced the SHANTI initiative, which stands for Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity. The framework was introduced at the start of India’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2028-29 period, and provides an institutional mechanism of a “rules-based, trust-based” nature for global and regional governance. 

Why the Bay of Bengal is the Ideal Strategic Laboratory

From the periphery to the very core, the Bay of Bengal has become a strategic pivot in India’s calculations, both geopolitically and geographically.

• High Geopolitical Concurrency and Cooperative Spirit: The Bay of Bengal is characterized by common historic, cultural and trade ties, in contrast to the Western Indian Ocean and South China Sea, which are primarily characterized by differences and conflict. The regional littoral states are more accepting of non-hegemonic alliances, creating less structural tension. 
• Interconnected Transnational Vulnerabilities: The whole basin is a single ecological and security matrix. The problems of one littoral state find themselves carried over to another state, so that a collective response is needed and not a bilateral response. 

Core Security Pillars Tested Under the SHANTI Vision

• Mitigating Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Threats: The regional matrix experiences high vulnerability to climate-induced disruptions, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and cyber risk exposure across maritime networks. SHANTI aims to set operational parameters to safeguard the critical maritime infrastructure and marine supply chains as a whole. 
• Institutionalising Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR): The Bay is one of the most disaster-prone maritime sectors in the world, and is prone to high intensity cyclonic events. India’s vision for SHANTI is to develop multi-nation permanent coordination grid rather than going on ad hoc post disaster relief missions. 
• Maintaining Regional Rules Based Order: The focus is on respecting international maritime law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It ensures the safety of seafarers and freedom of navigation, which is a response to any unilateral attempt to change the regional maritime balance. 

Strategic and Geopolitical Significance

• Indo Pacific Pivot: India changes security perspective from West to East towards maritime expansion.
• Resisting influence: Discouraging off-shore incursions and neutralising great power competition in coastal nations.
• Island Territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands project Indian power close to the Malacca Strait choke point. 

Economic and Trade Dynamics

• Connectivity Corridors: Provide links between major domestic ports (Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata) and the ASEAN markets.
• Blue Economy: Rich in fisheries, hydrocarbons and rare heavy mineral sands.
• Subregional Frameworks: Institutionalises trade through BIMSTEC and SAGAR. 

Ecological and Climatic Role

• Monsoon Engine: Critical link in the South-West monsoon system for Indian agriculture.
• Natural Buffer: Contains the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem although is becoming more susceptible to increasingly strong cyclonic storms. 

Key Challenges

• Strategic Divergences: Littoral States balance relations differently with the major powers: never an overt anti-China alignment.
• Ecological Strains: Susceptible to climate change, extreme weather and pollution in the marine environment.
• Connectivity Deficits: Improvement of regional infrastructure and sub-regional implementation of projects is slow. 

Way Forward

• Institutionalize BIMSTEC: Give a fillip to functional cooperation in high politic security format.
• Improve Domain Awareness: openly distribute white shipping information among regional partners.

Source: The Hindu

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