Strategic Impact
Her preferred answer is the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, or IPMDA: a system for sharing near-real-time maritime data across partners. Bhatt says it can help detect suspicious vessels, deter threats to shipping and give smaller Indian Ocean and Pacific states a way to see beyond their own limited surveillance reach. The article also notes that India bought SeaVision technology from the U.S. in 2025, which she presents as a practical step toward that cooperation.
Counterpoints
The argument assumes broader participation from ASEAN states, Pacific Island nations and others such as Bangladesh, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Fiji, but the article does not say how quickly that cooperation can be built.
Bhatt also treats transparency as a deterrent, yet the text does not test how far better surveillance alone can curb state-backed coercion or illegal maritime activity without wider enforcement follow-through.