Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

AMTI aims to promote transparency in the Indo-Pacific to dissuade assertive behavior and conflict and generate opportunities for cooperation and confidence building

Visit amti.csis.org

The maritime environment in East Asia contains both promise and peril. The Indo-Pacific region is host to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes, facilitates huge volumes of regional trade, and boasts abundant natural resources. Competing territorial claims, incidents between neighboring countries, and increasing militarization, however, raise the possibility that an isolated event at sea could become a geopolitical catastrophe. This is all occurring against a backdrop of relative opaqueness. Geography makes it difficult to monitor events as they occur, and there is no public, reliable authority for information on maritime developments.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative seeks to change this. AMTI was conceived of and designed by CSIS. It is an interactive, regularly-updated source for information, analysis, and policy exchange on maritime security issues in Asia. AMTI aims to promote transparency in the Indo-Pacific to dissuade assertive behavior and conflict and generate opportunities for cooperation and confidence building. Because AMTI aims to provide an objective platform for exchange, AMTI and CSIS take no position on territorial or maritime claims.

AMTI Leadership

Gregory B. Poling

Gregory B. Poling

Senior Fellow and Director, Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Harrison Prétat

Harrison Prétat

Associate Director and Associate Fellow, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

All content by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

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Flooding the Zone: China Coast Guard Patrols in 2022

China’s coast guard presence in the South China Sea is more robust than ever before, with Automatic Identification System data showing that it maintained near-daily patrols across key features in 2022.

Commentary — January 30, 2023

Photo: Copyright © 2023 by Maxar Technologies

Ocean Security Forum 2023

This year’s forum will focus on the theme of 'Natural Security' and the role that support for resilience, sustainability, and capacity building plays in fostering and building key US partnerships.

Event by Whitley Saumweber , Rod Schoonover , Dr. Kelly Kryc , Dr. Maxine Burkett , and Rear Admiral Jo-Ann F. Burdian — January 18, 2023

Photo: the Ocean Agency/Adobe Stock

Vietnam’s Major Spratly Expansion

Vietnam has accelerated and expanded dredging and landfill work at several of its outposts in the Spratly Islands in the second half of 2022, creating roughly 420 acres of new land this year.

Commentary — December 14, 2022

Photo: Planet Labs

Three Rounds of Coercion in Philippine Waters

In three separate incidents over the last two months, Chinese law enforcement vessels have challenged marine research and hydrocarbon exploration activities within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.

Commentary — May 26, 2022

Photo: Planet Labs

What Lies Beneath: Chinese Surveys in the South China Sea

Survey vessels have become important actors in China’s efforts to assert its maritime claims in the South China Sea, but their activities within the maritime zones of other claimants likely run afoul of international law.

Commentary — March 1, 2022

Photo: AMTI/CSIS