By AK Harbola
An Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) ‘Shaunak’ arrived in Perth, Australia, on 9 October ‘26. The Indian ‘white-hull’ ship, as per an official message on ‘X’, has been ‘deployed to execute the QUAD Ship Observer Mission’ alongside partner forces from all the QUAD countries. The deployment aims to enhance inter-agency coordination, operational interoperability, and the sharing of best practices to ensure maritime safety and uphold a free, open, and rule-based order in the Indo-Pacific, in line with the vision of ‘Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions’ or MAHASAGAR. Such a deployment of a coast guard ship is a part of what is known as ‘white-hull diplomacy’.
White-Hull Diplomacy
Military diplomacy is a common term used to refer to the structured use of military forces and assets, without actually using them for open warfare, to advance and support broader objectives of a state’s foreign policy. As a subset of military diplomacy, naval diplomacy ‘entails the use of naval forces in support of foreign policy objectives to build ‘bridges of friendship’ and strengthen international cooperation, on the one hand, and to signal capability and intent to deter potential adversaries, on the other hand.
The hull of a ship or a boat commonly means the main watertight body or superstructure. The hull of a Coast Guard ship is generally painted white. That’s why the use of the Coast Guard ships, or the ships of ‘non-military’ law enforcement agencies, to ‘diplomatically’ signal the political intent and commitment to pursue national interests is termed as ‘white-hull diplomacy’.
Using White-Hull Diplomacy
Nowadays, a large number of countries use their white-hulled ships to achieve their foreign policy objectives. India has been quite instrumental in using Indian Coast Guard ships for such purposes. ICGS ‘Sagar’ was deployed to the Maldives immediately after the tsunami struck in 2004. The ship carried humanitarian assistance material, including medicine. Indian Coast Guard ships have regularly been deployed for such missions, particularly within the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The ICG ships are also deployed for goodwill visits to various African and South Asian countries, in addition to the countries in the immediate maritime neighbourhood. One may recollect the commendable role of ICG ships in dousing the fire onboard a 333-metre-long oil tanker ‘MT New Diamond’, in September 2020, carrying 2,70,000 metric tons of crude oil, which caught fire from Kuwait enroute to Paradip while transiting through Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). India also pressed the ICG’s specialised pollution response personnel to Mauritius when a Japanese tanker, ‘MV Wakashio’, on 25 July 2020 got grounded off one of the Mauritian beaches, bringing a huge pollution potential threat almost at the country’s doors. The Indian Coast Guard also regularly exchanges best practices with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and other nations by imparting training in its training establishments or in the form of visits by its white-hulled ships.
USA regularly deploy its Coast Guard ships overseas to other countries on different missions. USCG ships are deployed in the Indo-Pacific region with an aim to reinforce rule-based maritime order and to impart training to its maritime partners. Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, though under different names like the Malaysian maritime enforcement agency, BAKAMLA, and Vietnam Coast Guard/Fisheries Resource Surveillance, respectively, use their coast guard or similar agencies to respond to the requirements of regional maritime policing and other areas of maritime cooperation. Japan’s Coast Guard forces are engaged in capacity-building cooperation with the South Asian and Pacific nations. Taiwan is another example of using its Coast Guard Administration (CGA) for regional cooperation and training among maritime nations like Palau, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and with allies like the US and Japan. The list of nations does not end here. It is, however, observed that while leveraging the capacity of their white-hulled ships, the countries generally limit themselves to the regional level. In fact, some of the states appoint coast guard officers in their respective embassies as attachés. In India’s case, its footprints of such diplomacy extend from the African coast in the west to the Australian coast in the east.
Advantages/ Connotations
The nature of maritime threats is fluid and dynamic. However, it may be appreciated that the ‘grey-zone’ threats can inflict considerable damage to national interests if not responded to in a timely and effective manner.
A white hull, being less aggressive, can be a good alternative for maritime patrols and law enforcement in view of its offering less escalation, while asserting sovereignty and simultaneously promoting international cooperation. Arctic Coast Guard Forum (ACGF) and the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum have been highly effective in handling maritime security issues. It may also be noted that countries like the Philippines and Indonesia effectively cooperate with other countries to fight piracy and terrorism in the Celebes and Sulu seas, and to weaken the threat of fish theft and smuggling, respectively.
Ms Apoorba Banerjee, a strategist for a firm in Malaysia, responsible for overseeing operations across ASIAN, in her paper, ‘White hulls in the Grey zone: Why coast guards now set the tempo at sea’, wrote: “Today, the centre of gravity has shifted to the white hulls that police, escort, rem, repel, rescue and repair in the murky space between peace and open conflict.’ Though she primarily refers to the area off the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific, the perspective is equally applicable to the countries of the Indian Ocean region too.
It may be recalled that in December 2004, when an undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean region, in addition to the naval ships, Indian coast guard ships and aircraft were prominently used to supply humanitarian aid overseas. In the last decade, the Indian government has extensively used the its coast guard ships for the purpose of carrying humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) items, conducting pollution response, and other similar operations. As an important step, the Indian Government had also extended its standing approval to ICG ships for entering ports of nine littoral countries, without actually seeking formal approval if they are engaged in search and rescue (SAR) operations and the situation demands their expeditious entry to a port located in those countries. This measure, in case of contingencies, will expedite the response to the needy, cutting down the time taken in seeking formal approvals.
Finally, all over the world, the use of white-hulled or Coast Guard ships by the respective governments is increasing day by day, in the form of regional alliances to undertake joint surveillance and patrolling, anti-piracy patrols, anti-smuggling operations, HADR ops, mutual visits, exchange of best practices and much more. It’s time for the Indian policymakers to use their white-hulled ships to leverage the large and heterogeneous inventory of the Indian Coast Guard. Further, in view of most of the ICG ships and hovercraft being constructed within the country, it also ensures the deserving projection of the indigenous capabilities in building ships, simultaneously earning international goodwill. Such an approach will be in consonance of India’s vision of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ and MAHASAGAR.
(Addl DG AK Harbola (Retd) is a former Coast Guard officer. He is currently associated with Rashtriya Raksha University, Gandhinagar (Gujarat). Views expressed are personal.)
