By Anthony Bergin, David Brewster and Aakriti Bachhawat

A new report, published by the Australian Strategic Policy Insitute, examines how Pacific island countries and Indian Ocean island states are managing and prioritising their maritime security challenges.

The National Security College’s David Brewster with ASPI’s Anthony Bergin and Aakriti Bachhawat discuss the increasing maritime threats and risks faced by these states due to a general lack of effective maritime security.

The report makes recommendations on measures that need to be taken by island states to build national resilience, institutions and capabilities. It then provides detailed recommendations on ways in which Australia and its like-minded partners can assist the island states in responding to these challenges. These include:

• Establishing a ‘Quad’ of coastguards to coordinate regional capacity building.
• Stepping up Australia’s maritime security capability building in the Indian Ocean, including in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. This includes developing local expertise and capabilities in aerial surveillance.
• Assisting in the development of national MDA systems in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• Focusing on the environmental security concerns of the island states, including sponsoring the establishment of an Indian Ocean Environmental Security Forum.

This special report was published by ASPI