Regional Disaster Response in the Indian Ocean Region

Summary and Recommendations

This report reviews the existing state of regional arrangements for the coordination of disaster preparedness and response in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), concluding that while regional understandings and mechanisms exist, these do not yet form the basis of an effective regional Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HADR) architecture.

This report then considers the experience of the South Pacific France, Australia and New Zealand Partnership (FRANZ) as a potential model for similar arrangements among Australia, France and India in the IOR. The FRANZ arrangements in the South Pacific provide a successful model for coordination. The arrangements provide the opportunity to:

  • better prepare for disasters;

  • share information;

  • coordinate relief efforts; and

  • engage with other regional partners.

The Ministerial Joint Statement issued following the May 2021 India-France-Australia Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue identified disaster preparedness and response as one of the key areas for cooperation among the three countries. The Statement “encouraged information sharing between humanitarian and disaster relief agencies of the three countries”. However, at present there is no standing arrangement to enable these exchanges.

A trilateral arrangement between India, France and Australia, using the experience of the FRANZ arrangements, could provide a foundation to develop more robust and effective regional architecture, while retaining flexibility and a working-level approach. Such arrangements would supplement or provide alternatives to other arrangements for disaster preparedness and response, and in some circumstances could help mitigate potential political sensitivities among Indian Ocean countries in receiving assistance from some countries.

The Problem of Disaster Preparedness and Response in the Indian Ocean Region

The IOR comprises 38 states, is the third largest of the world’s oceans and is home to some 2.5 billion people, or one third of the global population. The IOR also possesses the least well-developed coordination arrangements for disaster response in the world. The region is one of the most vulnerable to threats ranging from geophysical, meteorological, hydrological, climate, biological or man-made disasters.1 As the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the search for Flight MH370 demonstrated when a ‘black swan’ crisis occurs, identifying, marshalling and coordinating multinational efforts requires flexible and pre-prepared capabilities to be made available immediately. In the IOR they must then be deployed across vast distances without delay. The 2004 Tsunami also demonstrated the extreme vulnerability of vast littoral populations living in low-lying areas around the IOR. Fourteen countries were hit by a succession of tsunamis that resulted in an estimated 236,000 deaths.

Over the past two years concurrent, often compounding, crises have demonstrated the potential to escalate, spill over borders and create security issues that spread across continents.

However, the scale and diversity of the region militates against a single disaster preparedness, prevention, and response and recovery architecture. Instead, as in the Pacific, multiple, multilateral and potentially overlapping arrangements are required to ensure rapid and flexible responses to the full range of contingencies. Recent experience has demonstrated that some Indian Ocean countries have sensitivities about the delivery of disaster response by foreign countries or organisations. This underlines the need for different, alternative, arrangements to be available that can potentially mitigate those sensitivities.

Unfortunately, regional disaster response arrangements in the IOR are currently relatively underdeveloped.2 Regional leaders have yet to deliver the level of coordination necessary to cover this diverse littoral environment, which also represents one of the largest global maritime commons. Until now, this situation may have represented the limits of coordination capability. It is only recently, with the emergence of capabilities such as India’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) and Australia’s Maritime Border Command that the capability exists for effective real-time oversight and information collection over this vast littoral region.3

The capstone international standard for disaster risk management around the world is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. While regional understandings and mechanisms exist, these do not form the basis of an effective regional HADR architecture.4

The region does benefit from the work of institutions such as ASEAN through the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER); the ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management; and the work of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Disaster Management (AHA Centre).5 However, these arrangements apply to the ASEAN area which only abuts a portion of the IOR and do not include the region’s largest state, India. The East Asia Summit has also played an important, though still nascent role.6

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters (ARRND) and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium also provide mechanisms for high level information exchange and standard setting, but they do not equate to working arrangements to prepare for and respond to specific crises.7

The lack of strong regional institutions such as those enjoyed by ASEAN and (until recently, perhaps) the Pacific Islands Forum have militated against establishing working arrangements that go beyond high-level ministerial engagements or senior official’s committees. IORA has not progressed beyond seeking ‘to ensure a holistic discourse on the human and environmental security of the region’. Its role is to promote partnerships between regional states and organisations and it is developing guidelines for HADR. But it does not assist to coordinate disaster management at the operational level.8

The SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC), was established to provide policy advice and facilitate capacity building services including strategic learning, research, training, system development and exchange of information for effective disaster risk reduction and management. The SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Regional Disasters establishes principles for the provision of support and engagement but does not operate as the basis for operational engagement.9

In September 2022, the leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States announced the Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Relief in the Indo-Pacific and operational guidelines were signed to give it effect in September 2022. According to the announcement, the HADR partnership has been designed to respond to the vulnerabilities of the Indo-Pacific region and will serve as a dedicated framework for Quad partners to coordinate their disaster response operations in the region.10 At the time of writing, the Quad HADR partnership has not yet been fully operationalised.

While useful, these evolving arrangements are either underdeveloped, not operationalised or apply to only particular sub-regions of the IOR. Arguably the IOR needs an operational disaster response arrangement among key Indian Ocean states with the most capabilities.

How FRANZ provides a precedent for Indian Ocean Cooperation

Australia, India and France are among the Indian Ocean countries with the greatest capabilities to coordinate and assist in a regional response to disasters. In considering how the three countries might work together, the FRANZ arrangements could provide a useful model to be considered.

FRANZ represents a unique and diverse cooperative partnership that relies on information sharing, proximity and common interests to respond to both routine and unanticipated crises across a large area.

The Joint Statement on Disaster Relief Cooperation in the South Pacific was signed by France, Australia and New Zealand on 22 December 1992 (see Attachment 2 to this Report). It is civilian led and supported by the defence forces of FRANZ partners. The purpose of the Arrangements is for the signatories to “exchange information to ensure the best use of their assets and other resources for relief operations after cyclones and other natural disasters in the region.”

While cyclones remain the most common natural disasters across the South Pacific, in practice FRANZ has developed as an effective coordinating mechanism against the full range of disasters experienced within the region.

FRANZ’s success is founded on its delivery of practical coordination, between the signatories and with regional states. The 1992 Joint Statement agreed that “it would be useful for officials to meet on a regular basis at a technical level, to review operational requirements and further strengthen bilateral cooperation in preparing for and responding to natural disasters in the South Pacific region in close consultation with the countries concerned”.

The fundamental principles of FRANZ are:

  • Support for local leadership;

  • Support for localisation; and

  • Coordination and information sharing.

Recognition of host-state primacy and the importance of prioritising local solutions have made this an extremely innovative and long-lasting arrangement. Coordinating responses to complex disasters in the age of COVID has accelerated the process of localisation. The restrictions that COVID places on relief operations emphasises the value, not only of collective disaster coordination responses, but of preparing disaster arrangements in advance of a crisis.

The utility of these arrangements is ensured by a layered approach to consultation. There are three levels at which FRANZ engages, including:

  1. Strategic FRANZ Partners Meetings – FRANZ partners meet every 12-24 months to discuss and review:
  • the coordination of any recent responses to disasters in the Pacific and lessons learned;

  • updates on measures taken to increase disaster response preparedness and early warning in the Pacific;

  • renew FRANZ partners’ primary points of contact details; and

  • any other issues pertinent at the meeting.

  1. National FRANZ Partners Meetings – FRANZ partners host national level meetings in their own countries as part of ongoing discussion and information sharing on as range of issues including:
  • preparation for events such as the annual Pacific Cyclone season;

  • in response to a particular disaster situation;

  • to enhance coordination where one partner does not have diplomatic representation in a crisis affected country

  1. Pacific Country Partners Meetings – Meetings are held between FRANZ partner representatives from Pacific Island Missions (posts, embassies) to enhance coordination and information sharing in both crises response and non-crisis periods.

The leadership of the strategic level meetings rotates every two years to share the administrative burden and signal to regional partners the multilateral purpose of the arrangements. Delegations are comprised of experts typically drawn from foreign affairs departments, defence departments and the military, international development agencies, national disaster management agencies and bureaus of meteorology.

Importantly, the FRANZ arrangements do not contemplate unilateral action by the partners. The FRANZ Guidelines expressly stipulate that a request for assistance from FRANZ by a country is required before the partners may act in coordination to respond. This does not preclude the FRANZ partners from undertaking bilateral responses.

Regular exercises occur between partners, supporting the development of understanding of procedures and capabilities. The largest of these is the biennial Exercise Croix du Sud. It exercises the coordination of the delivery of humanitarian aid, evacuation of civilians and stabilisation and reconstruction efforts post-disaster. Every other year the exercise is supported by a desktop Exercise Equateur which develops the scenario for the next iteration of the series. Countries from throughout the Pacific region participate in the activity, highlighting regional support for the arrangement. Over time, these exercises have developed maritime interoperability between defence and police forces in addition to the diplomatic and civilian disaster response organisations. 11

At the operational level, FRANZ engages in three phases of effort, which typically include:

  • Crisis Preparations or Alert – In this phase FRANZ partners at the In Country and National level share information concerning contact details, threats of disasters and preparations being undertaken.

  • Crisis Response – In this phase, FRANZ partners share information concerning the impact of the disaster, assessment of needs, requests for assistance, offers of assistance and activities being implemented.

  • Post Crisis Review – In, this phase, FRANZ partners share information concerning the effectiveness of disaster response and lessons learned.

Accordingly, FRANZ provides a model for practical regional coordination across the full cycle of disaster risk management. It is a precedent that may be adapted to IOR conditions.

Potential trilateral HADR cooperative partnerships in the Indian Ocean Region

The FRANZ arrangement might appear unique to the conditions of the South Pacific. For one thing, the predictable cycle of extreme weather events made it almost inevitable that the three most capable maritime powers in the region would establish cooperative arrangements. Three decades of success has demonstrated that these trilateral arrangements provide a sound basis for working with the island states of the Pacific.

However, it is arguable that the evolution of an Indian Ocean regional community of interest provides a similar imperative for closer coordination of effort.12 Several concurrent developments support this conclusion. These include:

  • Increased Cabinet-level appetite for Indian, French and Australian trilateral cooperation in areas including:
  1. the rule of law;
  2. peaceful resolution of disputes;
  3. promotion of common democratic values;
  4. respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; maritime safety; and
  5. information exchange between the three countries humanitarian and disaster relief agencies.13
  • Radically enhanced maritime situational awareness and greater potential for international information sharing.14

  • Increased awareness of regional states’ shared interests in working to respond to concurrent and compounding complex crises.15

  • The recognition that Indian Ocean countries might replicate ASEAN’s outlook on the Indo-Pacific within the IOR. 16

  • The current relative lacuna for IOR HADR coordination arrangements. 17

These considerations suggest that a trilateral HADR arrangement may be an idea whose time has come. The precedent that FRANZ represents, is not so much the fact that France and Australia already participate in similar arrangements. Rather, there already exists in the South Pacific a model for multilateral HADR coordination that promotes preparedness through:

  • exercises;

  • layered strategic, national and regional partner’s meetings;

  • accessing the full range of civilian, military and policy crisis response partnerships;

  • information sharing;

  • coordination and standardisation of dedicated disaster-response stores;

  • enhanced measures for collaborative disaster response preparedness and early warning; and

  • warnings relating to threats of specific disasters.

FRANZ demonstrates that it is possible to achieve these objectives utilising existing national capability, with limited coordination overheads. It can be done in a way that promotes sovereign primacy; the increased requirement for localisation; and which promotes flexibility.

Above all, it is not an exclusive arrangement. FRANZ demonstrates that the trilateral engagement of major regional states can form the basis for enhanced multilateral engagement across a large and diverse maritime domain.

A regional arrangement, focused on the IOR, and led by Australia, France and India, could provide a valuable mechanism for regional disaster response that is effective and relatively informal, while mitigating potential sensitivities among some Indian Ocean states.

About the author

Alan Ryan is a senior advisor with Kearney based in the Middle East. He served as the Executive Director of the Australian Civil- Military Centre from 2012 to 2021. He was Principal of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at the Australian Defence College 2006-12. He was the senior strategic adviser to the Minister for Defence 2003-06 and has held positions in the Department of Defence, as a management consultant and at the Universities of Notre Dame Australia, Melbourne and New England. He has a Ph.D in International Studies from Cambridge University and a BA (Hons.)/LLB from the University of Melbourne.

References

  1. Indian Ocean Rim Association, “Disaster Risk Management’, https://www.iora.int/en/priorities-focus-areas/disaster-risk-management.

  2. For a valuable survey of collective response arrangements to disasters in the Indo Pacific, including the IOR, see Lina Gong and S.Nanthini, ‘Collective Response to Disasters in the Indo-Pacific: Opportunities And Challenges’, RSIS Policy Report, July 2022. https://www.rsis.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/PR220606_Collective-R....

  3. Indian Navy, Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region, https://www.indiannavy.nic.in/ifc-ior/about-us.html.

  4. L. Luke, ‘FRANZ Disaster Relief Co-ordination a Model for the Indian Ocean Region’, 30 October 2013, Future Directions International, https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/franz-disaster-relief-co....

  5. The AHA Centre, https://ahacentre.org.

  6. DFGAT, East Asia Summit (EAS), https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/regional-architecture/ea...

  7. Anura Shrestha, ‘Regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction’, http://sawtee.org/saes/?blog=regional-cooperation-on-disaster-risk-reduc....
    8. IORA, ‘Disaster Management’, https://www.iora.int/en/priorities-focus-areas/disaster-risk-management.

  8. SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Regional Disasters, https://www.ifrc.org/docs/idrl/N840EN.pdf.

  9. ‘Fact Sheet: Guidelines for Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the Indo-Pacific.’ https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/regional-architecture/qu....

  10. Defence News, ‘Exercise Croix du Sud launches into action’ 16 May 2018, https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2018-05-16/exercise-croi...

  11. Ministry of External Affairs, India, ‘India, France and Australia to work for open, rules- based Indo-Pacific’, 6 May 2021, https://in.news.yahoo.com/india-france-australia-open-rules-090256964.html.

  12. India-France-Australia Joint Statement on the occasion of the Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue, 6 May 2021, https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media- release/india-france-australia-joint-statement-occasion-trilateral-ministerial-dialogue; 1st Trilateral Dialogue between France, India and Australia, 9 September 2020, https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/australia/news/article/t... accessed 2 July 2021; R.P. Rajagopalan, ‘Rise of the Minilaterals: Examining the India-France-Australia Trilateral’, The Diplomat, 27 September 2020, https://thediplomat.com/2020/09/rise-of-the-minilaterals-examining-the-i....

  13. D. Brewster, ‘An ocean of information: How Australia can build Maritime Domain Awareness in the Indo-Pacific’, Asia and the Pacific Policy Society, Policy Forum, https://www.policyforum.net/an-ocean-of-information/; D. Brewster, ‘Give light, and the darkness will disappear: Australia’s quest for maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean’, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 3, 296–314 https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2018.1517437; A. Singh,‘Boosting India with maritime domain awareness’, Commentaries, Observer Research Foundation, 8 January 2021, https://www.orfonline.org/research/boosting-india- maritime-domain-awareness/.

  14. S. Chakradeo, Neighbourhood First Responder: India’s Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Brookings India, Policy Brief, August 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/research/neighbourhood-first-responder-indias-...

  15. India-France-Australia Joint Statement on the occasion of the Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue, 6 May 2021, paragraph 2.

  16. An excellent recent discussion of the regional maritime security architecture is S. Upadhyaya, Maritime Security Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region: Assessment of India’s Maritime Strategy to be the Regional “Net Security Provider”, Doctoral thesis, University of Wollongong, 2018, https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=theses1

This report was produced with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is part of a project on Australia-France-India Trilateral Cooperation, led by Dr David Brewster.
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