Context: Recently, the 15th edition of exercise “Dosti” is underway in the Maldives.

• Apart from this earlier India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives agreed to work on what they called the “four pillars” of security cooperation. 
• These involved the areas of marine security, human trafficking, counter-terrorism and cyber security.

Background

• India does have these kinds of military exercises with other countries. Sometimes it is multilateral, sometimes it is trilateral. For many years these exercises were bilateral.
• It was started in 1991 between the Indian and the Maldives coast guards.
• Sri Lanka joined the exercise for the first time in 2012, since then, it has been a trilateral exercise.

2021 marks 30 years since the first edition of the exercise.

Exercise Dosti

• It is a biennial trilateral exercise between the coast guards of participant countries.
• Aim: To strengthen friendship, enhance mutual operational capabilities, exercise interoperability and build cooperation between the coast guards.
• Participant Countries: India, Sri Lanka and Maldives
• The Indian Coast Guard vessels, ICGS Vajra and ICGS Apoorva, and the Sri Lanka Coast Guard’s SLCGS Suraksha are in the Maldives for the exercise.

Key Importance

• The countries join when there are common threats in the Indian Ocean. These exercises help during joint operations and missions undertaken by countries and also help enhance interoperability.
• Although piracy is not a major issue in this part of the Indian ocean, these kinds of exercises also help coast guards with training for possibilities.
• The scope of these exercises are wide-ranging. “If there is a maritime accident, or if there is an ecological disaster like an oil spill, sometimes the coast guard of one nation cannot tackle it alone.
• These exercises help develop a better understanding of the other nation’s coast guard operations and how to enhance coordination during different kinds of missions. 

Other Aspects

“Maritime security is a kind of thing where you need cooperation and one nation, one coast guard can’t do much because

• There are limitations and regulations involving international law, for instance the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). 
• Then there is the continental shelf which also has specific rules. Under international law, as stated in Article 76 of the Law of the Sea Convention, this maritime zone consists of the seabed and subsoil that extends to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles if the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.

According to a document issued by the US State Department, “The continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) are distinct maritime zones.” 

• The extended continental shelf is not an extension of the EEZ, the document states. “Some of the sovereign rights that a coastal state may exercise in the EEZ, especially rights to the resources of the water column (e.g., pelagic fisheries), do not apply to the ECS.”
• There are various provisions and clauses that state the circumstances in which a nation can enter these zones in waters of other nations, and joint exercises help with developing an understanding of these specifics.