The bi-annual naval exercise, Pakistan Aman 23, has again communicated to the world Pakistan’s vision for keeping the South Asian oceanic politics peaceful and stable in terms of evolving regional power politics of a nuclearized subcontinent. This naval exercise aims to promote regional cooperation, enhance interoperability among participating navies, and foster peace and stability in the maritime domain. The exercise typically involves a variety of activities, such as maritime security operations, search and rescue operations, and joint maneuvers. The participating navies conducted various exercises and drills, including search and rescue operations, anti-piracy operations, and anti-submarine warfare. The fundamental objectives of this multilateral naval exercises are the promotion of Pakistan’s positive image in the scope of regional peace and stability, consolidating the position of Pakistan’s navy in the regional maritime order, enhancing collaboration with other navies in the regional and extra-regional affairs while playing the role of a bridge between different regions, and remaining active in developing a united stance against terrorism and maritime crimes.
The mission of creating peace in the evolving oceanic politics of the South Asian region was initiated in 2007 when 28 countries joined Pakistan’s Aman initiative and started supporting Islamabad’s idea of maritime peace. The subsequent biannual exercises increased the number of participating navies and became a significant feature of Pakistan’s position in the oceanic waters. The recent exercise is the 8th in the biannual series of Aman exercises which ended with participants from more than 50 states and 60 military observers and defence attaches of diverse backgrounds from across the world. Moreover, a large number of diplomatic and strategic communities attended this mega event in Pakistan and marked it as a major development in the history of South Asia under the slogan of “Together for Peace”. This slogan focused on maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which could not be isolated from the strategic competition between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Under the shadows of the decades-long India Pakistan rivalry, the competition between the two South Asian nuclear powers has been shaped by several factors, including historical and geopolitical tensions, strategic interests, and regional power dynamics which haves pushed both India and Pakistan towards oceanic politics in which New Delhi has played a leading role and compelled Islamabad to take maritime-specific countermeasures against Indian offensive naval designs. Thus, the arrival of naval competition in the nuclearized regional order of South Asia has witnessed various maritime trends such as naval modernization, maritime-centric nuclear capabilities, maritime security, naval diplomacy, and contesting geopolitical interests in the naval domain. These trends altered the regional strategic outlook of South Asia, placed the India-Pakistan rivalry under oceanic politics and pushed the defense planners of both countries to define their contesting strategic positions in the surrounding oceanic waters. This naval competition between New Delhi and Islamabad has resulted in a maritime centric arms race between two territorially adjoining hostile nuclear powers.
The contesting attributes of this naval competition have convinced Islamabad to adopt a defensive position in response to the offensive Indian stand and is cemented in New Delhi’s regionally hegemonic designs. It is pertinent to mention here that the strategic communities of both countries are determined to invest in increasing their naval capabilities to safeguard their maritime interests and project their influence in the region.
In addition to the multilateral naval exercise Aman, the government of Pakistan developed a framework for bilateral cooperation with other navies and remained active in carrying out various naval exercises such as Sea Guardian (with the Chinese Navy), Arabian Monsoon (with the Russian and Sri Lankan navies), Nasal Al Bahr (with the UAE navy) and Thamar Al Tayyab (with the Omani navy). Additionally, Pakistan’s trilateral maritime cooperation has resulted in a joint naval exercise with the United States and Germany in the Arabian Sea. Various other joint ventures in the maritime domain (Seaspark, Tarseel-e-Bahar, and Shamsheer-e-Bahr) have been introduced by Pakistan with the intention of keeping its navy efficient and active against potential threats.
The central theme of all these naval exercises is to strengthen the position of Pakistan in the oceanic waters with the support of the international community because the government of Pakistan believes that support from across the world in the maritime domain will enable Pakistan to achieve its objective for keeping its seas peaceful and stable. Pakistan’s multilevel engagement with different countries in the maritime domain is deeply rooted in Islamabad’s quest for consolidating its counterbalancing maritime potential against the Indian increasing offensive naval designs in the broader IOR. The pursuit of multiplying its existing cooperation with different countries has led the government of Pakistan to participate in various
multilateral naval exercises.
Thus, these multinational collaborations have enabled Pakistan to diversify its maritime potential while aligning its naval forces with the global efforts of developing a peaceful sea-based political order. Based on the above mentioned scenario, it can be maintained that Pakistan Navy conducts exercises throughout the year to enhance its operational capabilities and readiness. These exercises are designed to improve the navy’s ability to defend the country’s maritime interests and maintain security in the region. Promoting maritime cooperation is intended to help Islamabad build trust and mutual understanding among neighbouring countries and their navies to ad vance security, peace, and stability in the region. Aman-23 is the continuation of Pakistan’s peaceful mission, which is linked to Islamabad’s quest for safeguarding its geo-economic interests and its dependency on the mega economic corridor project between Pakistan and China.
In the context of naval competition between India and Pakistan, developing of the trading port in Pakistan has added a new dimension to the New Delhi-Islamabad competition. New Delhi has translated the bilateral trading collaboration between Beijing and Islamabad as a potential security threat to India’s strategic aspirations for keeping the territorial and maritime affairs of South Asia under its hegemonic influences. In reaction to New Delhi’s regionally dominating ambitions, the Islamabad-based strategic community has decided to communicate its vision of creating a peaceful maritime order in the region that could remain purely for multidimensional trading activities.
In this way, Islamabad’s mission for preserving peace and stability in oceanic politics has resulted in the Aman exercises, and Islamabad’s leading decision-making circles are strong-minded in keeping Pakistan’s mission of maritime-specific peace initiative, active and dynamic. The participation of different countries in the Aman exercises has further validated and strengthened Islamabad’s position on the evolving maritime politics of a nuclearized subcontinent.
