Mission Sagar

• 28 Dec 2021

For Prelims: Mission Sagar, Location of Mozambique, Indian Ocean Region, ASEAN countries.

For Mains: Mission Sagar and its significance for India

Why in News

Recently, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kesari has reached the Port of Maputo, Mozambique to deliver 500 tonnes of food aid to support the efforts of Government of Mozambique to cope with ongoing drought and concurrent challenges of pandemic.

• India has also delivered two fast interceptor craft and self-defence military equipment to Mozambique.
• This is the eighth such deployment in consonance with the Prime Minister' s vision of Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and is being conducted in close coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs, and other agencies of the Government of India.

Key Points

• Mission Sagar:
  • Launched in May 2020, 'Mission Sagar’ was India’s initiative to deliver Covid-19 related assistance to the countries in the Indian Ocean Littoral states. The countries included were Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles.
    • Under ‘Mission Sagar’, the Indian Navy has been deploying its ships to send medical and humanitarian aid to the counties in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond.
    • Under the mission, the Indian Navy has delivered assistance of more than 3,000 metric tons of food aid, over 300 metric tons of liquid medical oxygen, 900 oxygen concentrators and 20 ISO containers to 15 friendly foreign countries.
  • In November 2020, as part of Mission Sagar-II, INS Airavat delivered food aid to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea.
  • Mission Sagar-III is part of India’s Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) assistance to friendly foreign countries during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
    • The assistance has been delivered to Vietnam and Cambodia. It highlights the importance accorded to ASEAN countries and further strengthens the existing bonds.
• Significance:
  • India’s extended Maritime Neighbourhood:
    • These deployments were conducted in solidarity with India’s extended Maritime Neighbourhood and highlights the importance accorded by India to these special relationships.
    • This is in continuance with India’s role as the first responder at a time of an exigency to the friendly nations.
  • Useful in Tackling Terrorism:
    • The equipment will be useful as Mozambique is hit by terrorism in its North.
      • Terrorist group Islamic State, also known as Da’esh, and its affiliates have rapidly spread in Central Africa.
  • Tackling Common Maritime Challenges:
    • This also helps in tackling common maritime challenges (traditional maritime conflicts between nation-states, environmental threats, threats by non-state actors (maritime terrorism and piracy), illicit maritime trades and trafficking) in the region.
    • This was a major theme of discussion at the second edition of the Goa Maritime Conclave in November (2021) which brings together countries in the Indian Ocean Region.

Vision ‘SAGAR’

• Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) was launched in 2015. It is India’s strategic vision for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
• Through SAGAR, India seeks to deepen economic and security cooperation with its maritime neighbours and assist in building their maritime security capabilities.
• Further, India seeks to safeguard its national interests and ensure the Indian Ocean region to become inclusive, collaborative and respect international law.
• The key relevance of SAGAR emerges when seen in conjunction with India’s other policies impacting the maritime domain like Act East Policy, Project Sagarmala, Project Mausam, India as ‘net security provider’, focus on Blue Economy etc.

Source: TH