Shadow Fleets, Sanctions Evasion, and the Complexities of Maritime Governance
The Grinch case illustrates how Indian nationals, including the ship’s captain and majority crew, play a central operational role in sustaining Russia’s sanction-evading oil trade, raising questions about legal compliance, operational ethics, and international maritime governance.
The Cowed Indian Aspirations
India has long prioritized its naval development and maritime strategy to materialize its ambitions of becoming the net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region. But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India\’s Maritime Strategy has become a real challenge for itself. The real test is to strike a balance between its alignment with Russia and a rather newly-found geostrategic convergence with the West and the US.
The QUAD II
What seemed like an extraordinary alliance under the name of QUAD began to fade away by 2007 until its revival in 2017. Since then maritime affairs and security have become a prime focus and all QUAD members are aligning their maritime disputes through this platform.
The QUAD
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” ~Albert Einstein