Muralidharan, M.P

Abstract: The economic importance of oceans to nations is well known. Nearly 80 percent of the world trade by volume is carried out through ships and this includes the energy needs of the world such as petroleum, both crude oil and its by-products and now increasingly, LNG. Trade and energy security or ensuring the uninterrupted flow of trade and energy needs via the sea route will remain a concern for most nations in the foreseeable future. This would, in turn, lead to bilateral and multi-lateral links at regional and global levels thus impacting foreign policy. It would be appreciated that oceans are also an important repository of energy as well as food resources. Furthermore, with improvement or availability of cheaper technology, nations also look to extract poly metallic nodules or other minerals from the sea for industrial use. Nations attempt to extract the above mentioned resources from the sea on their own from their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) or would cooperate with other nations to do so. In either case, such activities would impact bilateral and regional relationships. It is evident that all such activities have a maritime security dimension. Full text available here.