NT Reporter
Panaji
Stating that Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a huge problem in the Indian Ocean, Commandant of Naval War College Verem-Goa, Rear Admiral Arjun Dev Nair on Wednesday said that the Goa Maritime Conclave (GMC)-2026, to be held on February 21, will discuss how to address the issue of IUU among other threats that are affecting the development of blue economy.
“Maritime security is the key for economic security for all countries in the region (countries of the Indian Ocean Region). No country in the region can grow without free and unfettered trade in the entire Indian Ocean Region,” said Nair responding to a media query on blue economy during a press briefing at the Naval War College.
He said that blue economy includes other elements such as fishing and other activities. “Not specifically how to enhance the blue economy, but how to address the threats that are affecting our development of the blue economy will be discussed during the conclave,” said Nair.
“IUU fishing is a huge problem in the Indian Ocean Region…narcotics trafficking is another issue.”
“So, these issues are maritime crime-related, but they affect the blue economy development of all the countries,” said Nair adding that, “our discussions will be linked to blue economy, but more about the security aspect”.
Referring to the theme of the conclave, Nair said, “Cooperation and collaboration against IUU fishing and narcotics trafficking and other illegal maritime activities. The second theme is related to capability development and training cooperation to address the maritime security challenges.”
To another query on monitoring the Indian Ocean, Nair said, “We have the Information Fusion Centre, which is in Gurugram, which is fusing the information across the Indian Ocean Region. And we have a large number of observers from all the Indian Ocean countries. So, all shipping that transits the Indian Ocean Region, whether it’s white or dark or the warships, they are all being continuously monitored and tracked. And accordingly, actions are being taken by the respective countries based on information that is generated at the IFC-IOR (Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region),” said Nair.
The fifth edition of GMC-2026 will be held for the first time at the Chola building at Naval War College, INS Mandovi Verem. Chiefs of Naval staff and senior representatives from 14 Indian Ocean countries will be participating in the conclave under the theme ‘Common maritime security challenges in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region) – progressing lines of effort to mitigate dynamic threats’.
