In the theatre of maritime security, credibility is not an abstraction; it is earned by patrol logs, by escorted convoys, by statistics that tell of pirates deterred and lives safeguarded. Across the expanse of the western Indian Ocean, from the Gulf of Aden to the Somali coast, the difference between promise and performance has long been measured in transparency. It is here that the contrast between the established multilateral actors and Pakistan’s emergent, opaque maritime experiment becomes most visible. The former report, audit, and publish; the latter announces and forgets. Between the two lies the gulf that separates commitment from conjecture.
The record of India’s Navy, the European Union’s Operation Atalanta, and the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in Bahrain is a matter of public documentation. Every convoy escorted by an Indian destroyer, every World Food Programme vessel shepherded under EU protection, and every interdiction by CMF’s Task Force 151 is recorded, timestamped, and traceable. Their metrics are not slogans, they are arithmetic. Over fifteen years of sustained deployment, Atalanta alone has safeguarded more than two thousand merchant vessels, ensured the delivery of humanitarian cargo, and conducted hundreds of boardings under explicit United Nations mandates. India, operating independently yet complementarily, has rescued dozens of hijacked ships, evacuated hundreds of crew, and maintained a constant anti-piracy presence in the Gulf of Aden since 2008. The CMF, a coalition of over forty nations, releases its mission summaries and operational notes with a discipline that belongs to professional soldiery, not propaganda. Together, they form a web of verifiable security, rather, an ecosystem whose legitimacy derives from accountability.
Pakistan, by contrast, enters this domain with proclamations untested by data. Its proposed defence cooperation with Somalia, couched in the language of fraternity and partnership, offers no metrics, no oversight mechanisms, no operational transparency. The MoU promises naval training, patrol assistance, and technical collaboration, yet no clause specifies how success will be measured, or by whom. The Joint Defence Cooperation Committee established under the pact will report to the signatories alone, not to any multilateral body. Such a framework breeds discretion, not discipline. It invites the substitution of publicity for proof, and of appearances for accountability.
The credibility of maritime engagement, particularly in volatile waters, rests on two pillars: continuity and clarity. India and the EU demonstrate both. Their operations are not episodic; they are institutional. Their results are subject to audit and public scrutiny, and their command structures are governed by legal mandates that outlast political moods. They collaborate, share information, and participate in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), ensuring coherence across mandates. This is why, despite regional flux, the corridor through the Gulf of Aden has remained navigable and secure. It is also why shipowners, insurers, and humanitarian agencies trust these forces with their cargoes.
Pakistan’s template, meanwhile, borrows the vocabulary of professionalism without inheriting its discipline. The Navy in Karachi may possess ships assembled in Chinese or Turkish yards, but its institutional ethos remains driven by political projection rather than maritime stewardship. The offer to train Somali personnel in Pakistan’s War Colleges or to establish patrol capabilities sounds impressive on paper, yet these gestures are underwritten by a defence establishment that cannot demonstrate sustainability even at home. The recent IMF conditionalities on Pakistan’s defence spending reveal the fragility of its commitments. When foreign exchange reserves falter, maintenance budgets are the first to be cut. A navy that cannot guarantee its own refit cycles can scarcely promise mentorship to another.
In contrast, the EU’s Operation Atalanta publishes its annual reviews, detailing not only operational outcomes but also budgetary allocations and expenditure trails. The CMF, operating under a coalition framework, subjects itself to peer evaluation through partner nations. India’s Navy, though acting independently, reports outcomes to Parliament and engages diplomatically with multiple stakeholders, ensuring that its presence is both strategic and accountable. In every instance, the measure of credibility lies in verification, i.e. the public proof of conduct.
Somalia, at this juncture, finds itself confronted with two models. One, an architecture of shared responsibility, transparent funding, and measurable performance. The other, an arrangement of bilateral generosity unanchored in oversight. The former binds partners to outcomes; the latter binds recipients to patrons. The distinction is subtle but decisive. In the first, the small state gains capacity without surrendering agency. In the second, it inherits dependence packaged as cooperation.
What makes the multilateral approach superior is not simply its scale but its self-correcting nature. When an Atalanta mission fails, it is investigated. When CMF’s patrol patterns underperform, the adjustments are logged. Errors become data, and data becomes deterrence. Under Pakistan’s MoU framework, by contrast, failure would remain unreported, success unverifiable, and both subject to bureaucratic discretion. The result is not resilience but opacity, not trust but theatre.
Somalia’s waters have known enough of ambiguity with pirates having ruled them for millennia by exploiting the very absence of governance. It would be a cruel irony if, in the name of stability, opacity returned in uniformed form. If Somalia’s naval rebirth is to be genuine, it must draw upon frameworks that illuminate rather than obscure, that publish rather than promise. The sea, indifferent though it is, remembers those who treat it as a ledger rather than a stage.
Transparency is the final currency of security. It cannot be borrowed, nor faked, nor deferred. India, the EU, and the CMF have earned it through record, rhythm, and rigour. Pakistan, still rehearsing its script, must first learn that credibility, like seamanship, is not declared but demonstrated.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
