The Bay of Bengal as India’s SHANTI anchor, Pg10

Key Highlights:

• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar introduced Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity (SHANTI) on July 13, 2026.
• SHANTI was launched during India’s candidature for the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2028-29 term.
• It provides a normative framework for shared maritime spaces, intended to be operationalized first in the Bay of Bengal.
• The initiative builds upon India's existing maritime outreach frameworks, Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions (MAHASAGAR).

Detailed Insights:

• The Bay of Bengal is strategically vital, linking India’s Act East Policy with ASEAN and providing access to the Malacca Strait.
• The region faces non-traditional threats like climate-induced disasters, illegal fishing, and supply chain disruptions, necessitating coordinated regional responses.
• SHANTI aims to shift the focus from competition to demand-driven cooperation and from episodic crisis management to long-term resilience in maritime security.
• It seeks to redefine security from deterrence to resilience and from rivalry to shared responsibility in governing maritime commons.
• The Bay of Bengal's strategic geography encourages cooperation, despite institutional fragmentation among its littoral states.
• The BIMSTEC National Security Advisers’ meeting in July 2026 adopted common principles for maritime law enforcement and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
• BIMSTEC also agreed to hold its first joint maritime security exercise in the Bay in November 2026, reflecting SHANTI's norm-building objectives.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity (SHANTI): India's new normative framework for shared maritime spaces, emphasizing cooperation, trust, and integrity.
• Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR): India's vision for maritime cooperation and security in the Indian Ocean Region, articulated in 2015.
• Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions (MAHASAGAR): An expansion of the SAGAR vision, recognizing interconnected security in the wider Indo-Pacific and Global South.
• Act East Policy: India's foreign policy initiative to strengthen economic, strategic, and cultural relations with the Asia-Pacific region.
• BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation): An international organization of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations bordering the Bay of Bengal.