A decade ago, on 12 March 2015, while commissioning in Mauritius the
gleaming Offshore Patrol Vessel Barracuda, built in Garden Reach, Kolkata to
Mauritian specifications, Prime Minister Modi outlined India’s policy towards
the Indian Ocean Region (IOR): SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the
Region. The Indian Ocean, he pointed out, was critical to the future of the
world bearing two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments, one third of its bulk
cargo and half of its container traffic. The forty states that are on its littoral
host nearly 40% of the world’s population.
SAGAR policy emphasized five aspects: safety and security of the Indian
mainland and island territories and ensuring a safe, secure and stable IOR;
deepen economic and security cooperation with friends in the IOR particularly
maritime neighbors and island states through capacity building; collective
action and cooperation; seek a more integrated and cooperative future
towards sustainable development for all; and increased maritime engagement
in the IOR as the primary responsibility for the stability and prosperity of IOR
lay with those living in the region. If SAGAR was the external outreach of India,
in the national context it was complemented by the Sagarmala port-led
development initiative.
For long, India has been criticized for its continental bias, that it
was focused on its northern and north west frontiers to the neglect of its vast
maritime interests. However, this has been changing. Since the launch of its
Look East policy in 1992 which evolved into the proactive Act East policy in
2015, India has reclaimed its maritime legacy. PM Modi recently released a
special coin commemorating 1000 years of Emperor Rajendra Chola’s naval
achievements.
The Indian navy has been in the forefront of maritime diplomacy
through capacity building initiatives, joint exercises, plurilateral conferences,
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Search and Rescue
(SAR) activities. The 2004 Tsunami established India’s credentials in disaster
relief operations. India came to be recognized as the first responder and net
security provider in the IOR, particularly to states in its neighbourhood. India’s
prompt assistance to Myanmar in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone
Nargis in 2008 and being the first country to deliver drinking water to the
Maldives after a freshwater crisis in that country in end 2014 consolidated that image.
In March, 2025 India mounted a huge relief and rescue Operation
Brahma to earthquake hit Myanmar.
India has now graduated to becoming a preferred security partner in the
Indo-Pacific region forming defence partnerships that not only include joint
exercises and capacity building but also exports of defence equipment either
as a grant or under a defence Line of Credit at the request of the partner state.
Trilateral maritime security cooperation with Sri Lanka and Maldives
which began in 2011, has extended to other Indian Ocean states including
Mauritius and Bangladesh with Seychelles as observer under the Colombo
Security Conclave that now has a charter and a secretariat in Colombo. The
Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) which began as an initiative of the
Indian navy in 2008 is an inclusive platform to discuss maritime issues and to
work out effective response mechanisms. IONS has 25 participating countries
from South Asia, West Asia, Africa, southeast Asia and European countries with
Indian Ocean territories as well as nine observers and a rotating chair (India
will take over as chair, at the end of 2025). MILAN is a biennial multinational
exercise hosted by Indian navy in harmony with India’s vision of SAGAR and Act
East policy.
A crucial facet of maritime security is enhanced maritime domain
awareness. Towards this, India has also been pursuing white shipping
agreements with several countries (22 have been concluded till now) and
established a state-of-the-art Information Fusion Centre (IFC – IOR) in
Gurugram that facilitates sharing of maritime information among member
states.
India has a long history of development partnership going back to the
period prior to its Independence. Its approach to development partnership has
been shaped by its independence struggle, solidarity with other colonized and
developing countries and the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who
declared that “my patriotism includes the good of mankind in general”. It is
thus that India has been sharing its developmental experiences and technical
expertise in a spirit of Vasudhaivakutumbakam ( the ancient belief that the
World is One Family). As PM Modi stated in his address to the Ugandan
Parliament in 2018, “Our developmental partnership will be guided by your
priorities, it will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate
your potential and not constrain your future…” The Indian model of
developmental cooperation is comprehensive and involves multiple instruments including grant-in-aid, concessional lines of credit, capacity
building and technical assistance. Above all, it is unconditional, transparent,
sustainable and financially viable.
In June, 2018 at the Shangri La conference, PM Modi outlined India’s
Indo-Pacific vision. For India, the Indo-Pacific stands for a free, open, inclusive
region that “embraces us all in a common pursuit of progress and prosperity”.
He emphasized ASEAN centrality, a rules-based order, freedom of navigation,
unimpeded commerce and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with
international law. There is great synergy between the Indian approach and the
ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. In November 2019 at the East Asia Summit
in Bangkok, India launched the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) a coherent
initiative comprising seven pillars of practical cooperation built on the SAGAR
vision. India’s active participation in the QUAD (Australia, India, Japan and US)
is part of our Indo-Pacific vision. Earlier, in 2014, India established FIPIC
(Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation), a strategic initiative for
strengthening diplomatic and economic engagement with islands in the Pacific
ocean.
It was in 2023, during India’s presidency of G-20, whose leitmotif was
inclusivity, that the African Union was invited to join the grouping. India’s
presidency, inter alia, revived multilateralism, amplified the voice of the global
south and championed development. India has hosted three editions of the
Voice of the Global South summit since then.
Ten years after SAGAR, during an official visit to Mauritius in 2025, PM
Modi announced MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security
and Growth Across Regions), an updated doctrine. If SAGAR is the sea, then
MAHASAGAR denotes ‘ocean’ in Hindi and several other Indian languages.
MAHASAGAR marks a strategic evolution from a regional focus on the Indian
Ocean to a global maritime vision, with particular emphasis on the global
south. PM Modi’s recent engagements with Mauritius, Maldives, Trinidad and
Tobago, Ghana and now the Philippines are aligned with the MAHASAGAR
vision.
****
By Suchitra Durai
Former Ambassador of India to Thailand