Page 54 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

54
BORDER PROTECTION
OVERVIEW
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
“One example of an international partner organisation we work with is the Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF) which is a US Coast Guard lead activity through Indo-Pacific Command based out of Hawaii, looking at border controlled drug networks throughout the Indo-Pacific,
“This is a real privilege when you think that there are 22 Heads of Coastguards or Maritime Security Agencies, in- cluding Japan, China, Turkey, India and Sri Lanka amongst them plus a number of observer countries, plus a number of
in particular Australia’s eastern maritime ap- proaches,” RADM Goddard said. “We have very sophisticated and advanced information sharing mechanisms to understand those bor- der control drug threats to Australia. Many are disrupted at their source, or disrupted en route to Australia reflecting a cooperative way of dealing with the international illegal nar- cotics threat.
“IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT MBC IS NOT A COASTGUARD BUT A LEAD MARITIME SECURITY AGENCY AND THERE ARE MANY ADVANTAGES TO THAT, ACCORDING TO RADM GODDARD.”
associated multi-fora organisations such as the Bali Process, ReCAAP (Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combatting Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia); and a number of UN organisations as well,” RADM Goddard said. “The senior officials’ meetings leading up to the main meeting in September will focus on four operational pillars; being the protection of the environment at sea, search and rescue coordination, unlawful acts at sea, and capac- ity building. Australia will be proposing a fifth pillar of maritime domain awareness.
“To be frank, one of the closest relation- ships we have within HACGAM and on a bi- lateral is Indonesia. We work very closely with
LEFT: the MBC office
in Canberra has staff from a number of related agencies on the floor.
“And, of course, this isn’t just coastguard
to coastguard type activities, it’s actually full
interagency cooperation. It could be between
maritime security agencies, defence forces,
policing agencies, intelligence agencies. We
are working very closely with countries who will conduct inter- agency operations in coordination with Australia to protect our borders in the maritime environment. For example, in dealing with illegal fishing in the region we’re working very closely with a range of regional partners, by intelligence sharing, ca- pacity building, conducting joint patrols, so that in many cases we’re dealing with threats to Australia’s sovereignty and our fishing stocks at their source, sometimes even before potential illegal fishermen have even departed for Australia.”
Indonesia, both within the HACGAM multilateral fora but also on a bilateral level as well. At all levels the relationship is very professional and based on trust.”
SURVEILLANCE AND INFORMATION OPERATIONS
The adversary in Australia’s maritime could be a state ac- tor, a non-state actor, a criminal, or an accidental criminal such as a fisherman who legitimately does not realise they are fishing in the wrong area, it could be a people smug- gler. That adversary, if they are being watched or think they are being watched – they only have to think they are being watched – and know that Australia has the resolve to do something about it, they will behave differently in terms of part of that continuum, according to RADM Goddard. This in turn leads to deterrence and compliance.
“First of all we need to deal with the threats as far from Aus- tralia as we can, so ideally at their source,” RADM Goddard said. “That means working with partners, disrupting, sharing
JOINT EFFORT INTERNATIONALLY
In September this year, Australia will host the Head of Asian Coastguard Agencies Meeting (HACGAM), which meets every year and was established in 2004. At that time, it had eight members. Australia was fortunate to be an ob- server and then a member of the Head of Asian Coastguard Agencies Meeting from 2014. Australia is the host and therefore the chair for the 2020 meeting.
DEFENCE