Awareness alone cannot secure the seas: Admiral Dinesh Tripath

Panaji: India’s Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi on Saturday called on Indian Ocean Region (IOR) nations to move beyond information sharing and translate maritime domain awareness into coordinated action at sea, warning that criminal networks operating across the region became “more organised, technologically aware and interconnected.”

Delivering the closing address at the 5th edition of the Goa Maritime Conclave at INS Mandovi, Tripathi recommended leveraging artificial intelligence and autonomous systems for early warning, coordinated operations, and maintaining regular communication between member nations.


“In an era of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and rapidly adapting threats, we need to leverage technology to move from awareness to early warning and, from early warning to collective response,” Tripathi said. He addressed maritime delegations from 14 IOR nations, including the naval chiefs of Comoros, Kenya, Maldives and Seychelles.

While acknowledging that advances in surveillance, satellite tracking and data fusion significantly improved maritime domain awareness, Tripathi was pointed about the limits. “This awareness alone cannot secure the seas,” he said, calling for shared information to be translated into “timely and coordinated action at sea.”

Tripathi flagged piracy groups now operating as far as 600 nautical miles offshore, drug trafficking from the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle converging at sea, and rising fatalities among migrants carried in unsafe vessels. He cautioned that poaching of high-value fish species meant legal frameworks needed strengthening.