Quad Summit: Leaders To Launch Maritime Security Initiative To Track 'Dark Shipping' In Indo-Pacific

This initiative will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores.

New Delhi: Quad leaders at the Tokyo summit are set to launch a range of initiatives including the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) that will allow the member countries to monitor illegal fishing, track "dark shipping" and other tactical-level activities.

The leaders of the Quad nations including Australia, India, Japan, and the United States met Tuesday in Tokyo for the fourth time and the second time in person to discuss these initiatives.

This initiative will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores and, in turn, to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The ability to track dark shipping is among one of the several benefits listed under the maritime initiative. "The benefit of this maritime initiative will allow tracking of dark shipping and other tactical-level activities, such as rendezvous at sea, as well as improve partners' ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events and to protect their fisheries, which are vital to many Indo-Pacific economies," said the White House in a statement on the sidelines of Quad Summit.

How it will help nations in tracking dark ships?

Dark ships are vessels with their Automatic Identification System (AIS), a transponder system, switched off so as not to be detectable. IPMDA will offer a near-real-time, integrated, and cost-effective maritime domain awareness picture, added the White House in the statement.

"Through a combination of Automatic Identification System and radio-frequency technologies, Quad partners can provide an unprecedented “common thread” of activities. Because of its commercial origin, this data will be unclassified, allowing the Quad to provide it to a wide range of partners who wish to benefit," noted the White House.

Quad countries are committed to contributing to the region's maritime domain awareness, a fundamental requirement for peace, stability, and prosperity, through investment over five years.