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

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Update: China Continues to Transform Ream Naval Base

Over the course of August and September 2021, three new buildings have gone up and a new road has been cleared at Cambodia's Ream Naval Base, where concerns over possible Chinese military access linger amid Beijing-backed construction.

Commentary — October 12, 2021

Eleventh Annual South China Sea Conference: Session Four

The CSIS Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative are pleased to present the Eleventh Annual South China Sea Conference: Session Four on Friday, October 8, 2021.

Event by Huong Le Thu , Gregory B. Poling , Pooja Bhatt , Tetsuo Kotani , and Alessio Patalano — October 8, 2021

Strategic Catch Up: Biden’s Team Is Stepping Up in Southeast Asia

Vice-President Kamala Harris’s maiden visit to Southeast Asia this month couldn’t have come at a more critical juncture. The Biden administration’s “hard and messy” exit from Afghanistan has not only sapped the prestige of American power, at least for the moment, but also enabled rivals and their proxies to gloatingly question the United States’ commitment […]

Commentary — September 28, 2021

Codifying Waters and Reshaping Orders: China’s Strategy for Dominating the South China Sea

While states remain focused on combating Covid-19, security challenges to the existing international order have not vanished. On September 1, China’s Maritime Traffic Safety Law (MTSL) came into force, requiring all foreign vessels entering Chinese territorial waters to notify maritime authorities, carry required permits, and submit to Chinese command and supervision. This comes after China’s […]

Commentary — September 27, 2021

Eleventh Annual South China Sea Conference: Session Three

The CSIS Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative are pleased to present the Eleventh Annual South China Sea Conference: Session Three.

Event by Gregory B. Poling , Bich Tran , Blake Herzinger , and Michael Dahm — September 23, 2021

By Air, Land, and Sea: China’s Maritime Power Projection Network

China’s deployment of radar, missiles, and combat aircraft to its outposts in the South China Sea has greatly expanded its ability to project power in distant waters. See how these capabilities enable Chinese carrier operations in a new map from AMTI.

Commentary — September 17, 2021

Oceans of Opportunity: Southeast Asia’s Shared Maritime Challenges

CSIS held a three-part virtual conference in June 2021 on the maritime challenges facing Southeast Asian states. This white paper discusses urgent human, ecological, food, and climate security issues in the region’s oceans and steps to address these challenges.

Report by Danielle Fallin , Gregory B. Poling , Amanda Ingram , and Simon Tran Hudes — September 10, 2021

North Korea Builds New Docks On The Edge of the Yellow Sea and the Chinese Border

The analysis conducted and conclusions reached in this article are solely those of the author, not of CSIS or the team at AMTI. Commercially available satellite imagery shows that North Korea has constructed three new piers at the estuary of the Yalu River separating the north-western DPRK from neighboring China. The new docks appear built […]

Commentary — August 26, 2021

The Mediterranean’s Compliance Committee: A Model for the South China Sea?

Negotiations on a code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea have been stalled since 2019, mainly due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and the continuing challenges it presents to the region. However, even after the pandemic situation improves and negotiations can resume as normal, COC negotiators will still have to face many thorny […]

Commentary — August 25, 2021

Britain’s Return to the Indo-Pacific

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s foreword to the Integrated Review of Global Britain’s Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy spoke of HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the two largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy, leading a British and allied task group on the United Kingdom’s most ambitious global deployment for over two decades, visiting […]

Commentary — August 11, 2021