Outward facing, mercantile and modern societies, our nations — the United Kingdom and India — have much in common. Although separated by thousands of miles, we are inherently connected by the ocean, the world’s great global commons. Trade in food and goods underwrites our mutual prosperity, supporting the lives and livelihoods of so many. Global trade is predominantly a maritime activity, and this remains a fundamental truth in the Information Age too. But, today, our reliance on the maritime is only increasing, with the recognition that the data supporting online banking and capital flows also moves via underwater cables.
Both our national and maritime strategies are inescapably intertwined. Our nations need to secure, and make free from aggression and exploitation, the global lifelines of goods and resource that flow across the seas and on which our economies rely. But the norms of behaviour upon the seas — norms which have enabled globalisation to flourish, and the wider rules-based International Order of which they are a part — are all increasingly under threat, from the Black Sea to the Red Sea to the South China Sea.
