The murky waters of the Gulf of Aden appear to have got murkier with the latest twist to the drama of piracy on the high seas.

On November 18, the Indian navy sunk what it said was a "mother ship" (a big vessel piloted by Somali pirates, containing several smaller, faster boats in which the pirates set off to attack ships).

But it now turns out the "mother ship" might actually have been a Thai fishing trawler, which was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.

Whatever the case might be, the incident did make international headlines. A normally reticent military and economic power like India was seen to be taking the lead and showing the world the way to deal with what has now become a serious security issue affecting the global maritime trade. It was also the first time that the Indian navy was involved in a firefight so far from its coast.

However, there is little that is really surprising about the action taken by the INS Tabar, a state-of-the-art Russian-built naval vessel. Plainly put, the Indian navy was acting in the interests of India and its sea trade.

One of the facts of the global maritime trade is that one-sixth of the world's merchant seamen are Indians. Indian sailors tend to be part of crews in hundreds of commercial liners plying sea routes across the globe.

Much has also been made, especially back in India, about the Indian navy's "offer" to protect foreign-owned ships and help them safely cross the pirate-infested waters. With so many problems and shortages back home, the argument goes, where is the need to spend manpower and resources helping foreigners.

What is not taken into account, however, is the fact that more than 80 per cent of India's shipping trade along the route is carried out through foreign-owned vessels. Providing a protective cover for these vessels is, therefore, in India's interest.

Besides, eastern Africa - especially Kenya - is home to a significant population of economically well-off ethnic Indians, who have retained strong business and cultural ties with their ancestral homeland.

Strategic importance

The Gulf of Aden is of immense strategic importance to India. The nation's rapidly expanding economy demands an uninterrupted supply of goods and natural resources. It is estimated that about 25-30 Indian ships, carrying cargo - including crude - worth $100 billion (Dh367 billion) pass through this route each month.

In 1971, during the Bangladesh War, the Indian security establishment was jolted when the US sent an aircraft carrier to the Bay of Bengal. An immense modernisation programme was put in motion. India's naval might, today, is undoubtedly impressive. The country owns an aircraft carrier (one of the few in the world to do so; the United States has 11), at least 15 submarines and 48 surface warships. It jealously guards its extensive coastline and its international waters.

But, as the International Maritime Bureau estimates, there were more than 200 incidents of piracy so far this year. A third of these, including dramatic ones such as the hijackings of the Ukraine-owned, arms-carrying MV Faina and the Saudi oil supertanker MV Sirius Star early this month were off the coast of Somalia.

The fact remains that whatever the actions of individual navies, containing piracy off the coast of Somalia requires a concerted international effort. As Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the Southampton-based DRYAD Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd recently told Gulf News, the answer to the issue of piracy off the coast of Somalia lies not in sending more warships to the region but in solving the political problems inside the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.