Krishnaswamy Natarajan, as the former director general of Indian Coast Guard, has shouldered various responsibilities of national and international stature pertaining to maritime security, maritime safety, and marine environment protection and preservation.
Natarajan was chairman, National Maritime Search and Rescue Board, and commander, Coastal Command responsible for ensuring India’s coastal security against seaborne terror attacks. He was also chairman, National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan and the Central Coordinating Authority for marine oil spill response in India. Under his leadership, new bridges of friendship and partnership have been established with the coast guards and maritime agencies in the Asian region.
In a career span of four decades, Natarajan has rich experience in combating transnational maritime crimes especially piracy, armed robbery, narcotics, weapons, poaching of marine resources and human trafficking. He is well-versed with the nuances of International Maritime Law and IMO Conventions aimed at ensuring safe, secured seas for the maritime community. Under his guidance, the coordinated efforts with the stakeholders from port authorities and state marine police, resulted in the apprehension of perpetrators and eradication of petty thefts in Indian port limits.
In his former capacity as the Indian Governor to ReCAAP ISC since July 2019, he has a clear understanding of the functioning of ReCAAP ISC and the significant role it plays in combating piracy and armed robbery in the Asian region.
Natarajan is a firm believer that the dynamic maritime challenges of present and future can be addressed effectively by adopting the C5Is- namely communication, coordination, cooperation, collaboration, commitment and information sharing. He strongly advocates that building trust and confidence amongst the maritime stakeholders of nations in the Asian region is vital to prevent occurrence of transnational maritime crimes. He is also of the view that while focusing on the core competency areas of ReCAAP ISC, he also like to analyze the emerging maritime challenges which have a nexus on piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia.