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The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
India, South Korea hold 13th high-level Coast Guard meeting in Delhi
The 13th high-level meeting between the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Korea Coast Guard took place in New Delhi on Monday (July 21, 2025). The meeting was led by S. Paramesh, Director General, ICG, and Kim Yong Jin, Commissioner General of the Korea Coast Guard, on an official visit to India from July 20-24 as the head of a five-member delegation. During the meeting, discussions were held on strengthening operational cooperation in key areas, including maritime search and rescue, pollution response, and maritime law enforcement. Both sides reiterated the importance of sharing best practices, enhancing interoperability, and sustaining regular personnel exchanges under the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two agencies in 2006. The KCG delegation will also travel to Mumbai from July 23-24, where they are scheduled to undertake an industrial visit to Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, and ICG patrol vessels, further reinforcing maritime, industrial, and operational linkages. The meeting provided fresh momentum to the enduring and professional relationship between the two Coast Guards, and reaffirmed their joint commitment to promoting maritime safety, security, and environmental protection in the region, the ICG said. Earlier in the day, the Korea Coast Guard Commissioner called on Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh. The meeting included a discussion on enhancing India-South Korea Coast Guard cooperation, with a focus on search and rescue, and maritime pollution response, the Union Ministry of Defence posted on social media platform X.
Nikkei Asia
2 days ago
- Politics
- Nikkei Asia
Isolated Sentinel tribe in focus as India readies census
A Sentinel tribesman aims his bow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter as it flies over North Sentinel Island in December 2004. © Reuters KIRAN SHARMA NEW DELHI -- As India gears up for its next census after a delay of six years, the government faces a difficult task trying to account for the small Sentinelese tribal population on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The indigenous people, called the world's most isolated, fiercely resist all contact with outsiders. The nationwide, once-a-decade census was slated for 2021 but postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The count will start for most parts of India in March 2027, while for a few states and territories in the country's north, it will begin early in October next year. Besides recording population data, the exercise includes caste details on all Indians for the first time since the South Asian nation's independence from British rule in 1947.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Arrest of Indian fishermen lays bare uneasy Delhi-Dhaka ties
For the second time in the past one year, Bangladesh has detained Indian fishermen, official sources said on Saturday (July 19, 2025). The development is being viewed by policymakers as a growing 'absence of understanding' between the two sides against the backdrop of a seemingly uneasy relationship between Dhaka and New Delhi. The latest incident took place during the intervening night of July 14 and 15 when 34 Indian fishermen in two trawlers — FB Jhor and FB Ma Mangal Chandi — were apprehended by Bangladesh authorities near the Mongla port. 'As soon as information about the incident was received, our High Commission in Bangladesh took up the matter with Bangladeshi authorities through diplomatic channels seeking immediate consular access. We are constantly pursuing the matter for facilitating the safe and early return of all the fishermen along with their boats,' said an official dealing with the matter. On October 8, 2009, Bangladesh initiated an arbitration to settle the maritime boundary dispute with India, and, in 2014, a settlement was reached through the Permanent Court of Arbitration. But though the maritime boundary was decided, lack of visible markers meant fishermen often strayed across the agreed line in the Bay of Bengal. India and Bangladesh arrested 185 fishermen in the winter of 2024 as bilateral ties plummeted following the overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024. On January 5 this year, these individuals were exchanged when 95 Indian fishermen were handed over by Bangladesh authorities to the Indian Coast Guard. In response, India returned 90 Bangladeshi fishermen on the same day. As a matter of convention, both sides had an understanding that fishermen would have to be protected as they had no means to detect the invisible maritime boundary. Such fishermen who crossed the boundary after the settlement of 2014 would often get detained but as part of an 'unwritten understanding' supported by political leaders on both sides, these individuals would be quickly released as prolonged detention hurts economic prospects of fishermen in this region. However, the incidents of apprehension of fishermen are being interpreted by policymakers as a sign that the earlier 'unwritten understanding' regarding fishermen is no longer being respected. The Hindu was told that Bangladesh is applying the law in a 'stricter' manner which is leading to largescale and prolonged detention of Indian fishermen.
CNA
6 days ago
- CNA
Commentary: Myanmar's war is exacerbating a flood of meth across Southeast Asia
SINGAPORE: At first it was innocuous enough – a fishing boat far below, making its way across the azure blue surface of the Andaman Sea. But an Indian Coast Guard crew on a routine air patrol sensed something odd about it, and called it in. A fast, armed Coast Guard cutter was dispatched from its base at Port Blair in the Andamans to intercept the boat. It quickly caught up and shadowed the vessel for some time. When the Myanmar-flagged boat crossed into Indian territorial waters, the Coast Guard moved in. On board were six Myanmar nationals and a staggering 5.5 tonnes of crystal meth. It was the largest drug bust in India's maritime history. That haul on Nov 24, 2024, was both an indicator, and the proverbial drop in the ocean. Synthetic drug production and trafficking in the region, particularly out of Myanmar's Shan State, has grown exponentially in recent years. And it is fuelling a criminal economy Southeast Asia is finding hard to control. CRIMINAL CONVERGENCE Methamphetamine seizure in East and Southeast Asia hit a record 236 tonnes in 2024 – a 24 per cent increase over the previous year, according to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). At the heart of this problem is Shan State, Myanmar's largest region by land. Bordering China, Laos and Thailand, it spans 155,800 sq km and is bigger than Nepal or Bangladesh. It is part of the infamous Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet among rice fields, dense jungles, mist-covered mountains, lazy rivers – and drugs, guns, and money. 'The volume of methamphetamine moving out of Shan State is likely larger than what is trafficked north out of Mexico, making Shan State the most geographically concentrated meth production centre in the world,' said Jeremy Douglas, UNODC's chief of staff and strategy advisor, who has long focused on transnational crime in the Mekong region. The capacity of the US to gather intelligence and secure borders is however far better than the neighbouring countries of the Golden Triangle and Southeast Asia, he told me. While Myanmar has long grappled with illegal drugs, the problem has accelerated since a military coup in 2021 and the ensuing civil war, becoming what experts are saying is now a full-blown regional crisis that is, frighteningly, often beyond the capacity of local law enforcement. Controlled by various ethnic armed groups – many of which are fighting Myanmar's military and at times each other – Shan State is a patchwork of competing factions in a volatile region ravaged by poverty and conflict. These groups, along with regime forces, have also converged with criminal organisations, leveraging and living off a range of illicit activity. These include meth production, illegal mining and logging, human trafficking, cyber scams and money laundering via underground banking and illegal online casinos. What sets them apart from old-school drug cartels is how tech-savvy and decentralised they are. Encrypted messaging, drones, GPS trackers and cryptocurrency payments are part of their toolkit. They also use front companies as covers and operate cell-based networks that hire locals like drivers or fishermen to transport the drugs. Precursor chemicals needed to manufacture the drugs are often bought online using cryptocurrency and often shipped from suppliers in China and India. A REGIONAL CRISIS Of particular note is the role maritime routes play. The boat carrying the crystal meth seized by the Indian Coast Guard last November was intercepted 8 nautical miles from Barren Island, a volcanic island due east of India's Andaman and Nicobar island chain, and roughly southwest of Yangon. The crew on the boat had a satellite phone and was using Starlink to navigate. Intelligence sources believe the shipment originated in Tachilek in Shan State just across the Thai border from Mae Sai, and was shipped via Yangon, bound for several foreign markets including Australia and Japan – probably after being subdivided somewhere en route. In July 2024, Indonesian authorities seized 106kg of crystal meth from a vessel off the Riau Islands. Three Indian nationals were arrested. Reports citing sources said the crystal meth was bound for Brisbane, Australia. Meanwhile, it appears that Sabah, Malaysia, has also emerged as a new hub, with fishermen often recruited to ferry drugs across the Myanmar-Malaysia-Indonesia-Philippines route. For instance, authorities confiscated 1,143kg of crystal meth in Sabah and Sarawak last year, nearly three times the amount the previous year. The volume of crystal meth seized from boats is mirrored by higher volumes of drugs seized per shipment on land routes. Thailand's northern and northeastern borders with Myanmar and Laos respectively remain the busiest trafficking corridors. The porous route to India through that country's northeast is also increasingly a problem for law enforcement. In January this year, Thai forces in Chiang Rai province, for instance, seized over 1 tonne of crystal meth assessed as headed for markets in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. And just last week (Jul 11), security forces in Zokhawthar, a town in India's Mizoram state on the border with Myanmar, challenged two men with backpacks who then shed their packs and jumped into a river which they crossed into Myanmar. The packs revealed methamphetamine pills worth over US$13 million. That was just one of almost daily seizures of thousands of methamphetamine tablets in northeast India, where rising local drug addiction has long been a worry. In parts of the region, like Manipur, the flow and use of drugs across the border feed into ethno-nationalist tensions entwined with mafia-like politics fuelling barely contained internal conflicts. In terms of methamphetamine transit as well as use in Southeast Asia, Thailand remains an epicentre. Seizures of the drug, in both tablet and crystal form, continue to rise. With little methamphetamine pills known as 'yaba' retailing locally for only around 20 baht or less than US$1 each, stemming the tide is a daily battle for Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). 'It's a nationwide epidemic' said Ms Sritrakool Waeladee, director of the foreign affairs bureau of the ONCB, at a recent briefing at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand. In 2024, Thailand seized more than 900 tonnes of controlled precursor chemicals, while meth tablet seizures rose by over 55 per cent from 2023 to 2024. THE CORE PROBLEM The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) does recognise the threat. In October 2024, ASEAN leaders committed to strengthening cross-border cooperation and coordination against synthetic drugs. Experts have called for greater maritime cooperation between India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. But much like the infamous Mexican drug cartels, the core of the problem, in Shan State, remains beyond the reach of individual countries in the region. While there are several centres across the region manufacturing and pushing out synthetic drugs, the bottom line is that Shan State is the primary source. However, further complicating a region rife with armed ethnic groups and criminal syndicates is an overlay of geopolitical competition. China, for example, is known to back, among others, the United Wa State Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. The United States is largely sympathetic to the National Unity Government, which is a collection of groups fighting the military regime. India is worried about its volatile and misgoverned northeast being undermined by drugs and illicit money from Myanmar. Only a negotiated peace between the warring factions including Myanmar's military regime offers any hope of a solution to this Gordian knot. But that remains a distant prospect. In its absence, the best one may hope for is that neighbouring countries in the interest of their own stability, beef up intelligence sharing, border security and enforcement.
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Time of India
Pak fishing net buoy found washed ashore at Korlai beach in Raigad after six days of search operation
Navi Mumbai: A Pakistani fishing net buoy that had detached and drifted in the Arabian sea about five months ago and had disappeared after being spotted by the Indian Coast Guard on July 6 has been found washed ashore at Korlai beach in Murud taluka, Raigad district on Friday. Anchal Dalal, Raigad Superintendent of Police said, "The Pakistani boat's fishing net buoy was being searched for the past six days by multiple security agencies along Revdanda, Alibaug, Murud, Korlai and Mandwa beaches. Bomb detector devices were used to search for the buoy along the coastline. On Friday, the buoy was found washed ashore at Korlai beach. The GPS tracking system in the buoy would get activated in sunlight and the GPS signalling has been tracked to Pakistan, thus confirming that the buoy was of a Pakistani fishing boat to keep the fishing net afloat and the GRP tracker in the buoy is meant for tracking fishing activities. However, the buoy got detached during navigation and drifted and reached the sea in Raigad." While the Raigad police were searching for the Pakistani buoy, it was found that about 287 fishing boats in Raigad district were unauthorized. The police had sought details of the owners of more than 3,500 fishing boats in Raigad district. Out of them 2,800 fishing boats were found to be registered. The owners of 637 boats were not found, informed Raigad police. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai
