The Bay of Bengal as India’s SHANTI anchor
The article discusses India's evolving maritime security strategy, introducing 'SHANTI' (Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity) as a normative framework for shared maritime spaces, building upon previous initiatives like SAGAR and MAHASAGAR. It highlights the Bay of Bengal's strategic centrality, its vulnerability to non-traditional threats (climate disasters, illegal fishing, cyber vulnerabilities), and the need for coordinated regional cooperation. SHANTI aims to shift the focus from competition to demand-driven cooperation, institution-building, and long-term resilience, positioning India as a 'preferred security partner' and 'first responder'. The Bay of Bengal is presented as an ideal 'natural laboratory' to operationalize SHANTI, leveraging existing mechanisms like BIMSTEC for trust-based, rules-based cooperation.
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