Current Affairs 2022: Significance of Dosti Trilateral Coast Guard Exercise

By Abhishek Desai

Dosti trilateral Exercise was started in 1995 between India and Maldives later it was joined by Sri Lanka. Read further to know the significance of the Trilateral Coast Gaurd exercise.

The Dosti Trilateral Exercise is a 5-day biennial coast guard drill that includes India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This exercise began in the year 1991 between India and the Maldives, with Sri Lanka joining only in 2012. The Indian Coast Guard ships ICGS Vajra and ICGS Apoorva joined the Sri Lankan Coast Guard ship SLCGS Suraksha for the drill which commenced on November 20 till 25. The motive behind this exercise, as per the Indian High Commission in the Maldives, is to bolster the mutual friendship, operational ability, exercise interoperability and forge strong coordination amongst the Coast Guards of the three countries. This further enables maintaining peaceful stability in the Indian Ocean.

Such drills help a lot, especially in the joint operations and missions shouldered by the nations. Even though thankfully so far, piracy hasn’t been a major challenge in this part of the Indian Ocean, these drills prove crucial in letting the coast guards tackle with the training of such probabilities. Needless to say, the scope of these kinds of exercises is quite far-reaching. For example, in the unfortunate event of a major maritime accident or an oil spill of significant proportions, the coast guard of just one nation would find it difficult to tackle. Experts reckon exercises like the “Dosti” not only foster in comprehending a holistically enhanced understanding of the other country’s coast guard operations but also in supplementing coordination during challenging missions. In today’s times, maritime security demands a lot of cooperation, trust, and as much support as possible.

During a virtual meeting held in August 2021, the top security chiefs of India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka mutually aimed at working upon the four key aspects of security cooperation - human trafficking, cyber security, marine security, and counterterrorism. Also, in November 2020, the three countries had readily admitted lengthening the scope of intelligence sharing. The significance of this November 2020 meeting was witnessing the resurgence of trilateral talks on maritime security in the Indian Ocean after a gap of six years at the NSA level. Such drills end up providing a significant boost in further bolstering the diplomatic relations between the countries involved.

India, on its part, has realized the importance of conducting such exercises with other nations in recent times. In the previous decade, India has taken part in the army joint exercises with 18 nations, naval exercises with 14 nations, and air-force drills with eight nations. However, there is a fair share of criticism too against conducting such drills with an expert mentioning that they are quite basic in nature which ends up offering less value to the Indian forces. At the same time, these exercises are usually periodic in nature while the crew and officials partaking in those drills rarely being consistent. Hence, with a new crew every time, the learnings imparted previously have often got to be re-learnt right from scratch. Having said that, the “Dosti” trilateral exercise is indeed creating a legacy of its own and will, in due course of time, be more robust, mutually benefitting, expansive, and collaborative. 

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