The European Union wants to ramp up its maritime security influence in the Indo-Pacific by offering access to a web-based platform that enables member countries’ navies and coastguards to communicate in real-time.
Trials of the Indo-Pacific Regional Information Sharing (IORIS) platform are under way in the Philippines, where it is being used to carry out joint disaster relief exercises, navy chief Rear Admiral Caesar Valencia told a forum in Manila.
He explained that the IORIS platform would “contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the region” by allowing the countries using it to act as “each other’s eyes and ears.”
IORIS was developed as part of the EU’s CRIMARIO project, whose first incarnation from 2015-19 focused on critical maritime routes in the Indian Ocean, before being expanded in 2020 to include Southeast Asia as well.
The platform acts like a “very, very secure Facebook” and does not require any particular hardware or software to run, according to CRIMARIO Director Martin Inglott. A lifetime IORIS licence costs €120,000 (US$134,300).
Once signed up, member countries’ navies and coastguards can create individual profiles, and connect with others to create “a community” focused on monitoring a particular incident, such as a ship carrying hazardous cargo that is in danger of sinking.
Instead of using emails or phone calls, agencies can communicate, exchange data and plot coordinates of aircraft and vessels on navigational charts within the IORIS platform.
The platform also allows the sharing of other information such as satellite imagery and the radio frequencies of vessels engaged in illegal fishing that have switched off their transponders.
The news comes as during January, Manila placed an order with India for US$375 million worth of BrahMos missiles, which can travel at up to three times the speed of sound, have a range of 290km and were jointly developed with Russia.
Valencia said the missiles would “significantly contribute to the country’s deterrence capabilities”, aided by the use of IORIS, which “will allow us to enhance maritime surveillance and maximise the capacity of such capabilities given the vastness of the sea and the myriad of security threats at our doorsteps”.
China is not a member of IORIS, but Inglott stressed that neither the information-sharing platform nor the CRIMARIO project were aimed at any one country, saying they were “pretty neutral and unbiased with benevolent ambitions in mind”.
However, when asked whether the EU would consider inviting China to use IORIS, he replied:
At this moment in time, the framework which defines the CRIMARIO programme is called the description of action. And the description of action excludes China from cooperating
