NEW DELHI: India and Myanmar are in the advanced stage of signing an information sharing agreement to boost maritime security. With this agreement, India along with Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand will cover the whole Bay of Bengal region.
“The details have been worked out with Myanmar on White Shipping Information sharing,” said an official. “India has similar arrangement with Mauritius, Seychelles and Maldives also,” he added.
He said the agreement will help the two nations to exchange information and improve crisis response in the maritime domain.
India has similar agreements with Bangladesh and Thailand in the Bay of Bengal region. Taking into account the high degree of dependence of the above countries on maritime trade and the emerging asymmetric challenges, India had signed a similar agreement with Thailand in 2018 to exchange information to raise maritime domain awareness, greater degree of coordinated patrols, and anti-piracy measures as areas of immediate importance.
They also explored the possibility of cooperation in hydrographic surveys.India and Bangladesh had also signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU)in October this year on establishing Coastal Surveillance Radar System in Bangladesh.