India’s role in the Indian Ocean Region is now increasingly been seen as that of a protector internationally. As India looks to counter growing Chinese influence, the urgency of completing construction of new aircraft carriers and attack submarines, modernizing India’s naval assets, and improving its maritime domain awareness capabilities occupy center stage. India recently launched its ambitious First manned ocean Mission ‘Samudrayan’, for which, a deep-submergence vehicle called Matsya 6000 is being indigenously developed in the country. With the launch of this Unique Ocean Mission, India joins the elite club of nations such as the USA, Russia, Japan, France, and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities. Not only has this opened a new chapter for India to explore ocean resources for drinking water, clean energy, but it has also marked India as one of the leading crusaders of Blue economy.
In 2015, India had initiated the very ambitious Sagarmala project, which the Cabinet approved to promote port-led development in India. The project, which aims to harness economic potentiial out of the country’s 7500 km long coastline, had been rolled out for boosting infrastructure for transporting goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Establishing a robust maritime infrastructure and strong maritime strategy requires massive integration of national inland waterways, road and railway corridors, creation of special economic zones, well-planned industrial and logistics park, dedicated freight corridors project, etc. all of which are either at prep stage or already functioning in the country. Announcement of Gati Shakti also forms a major part of this full scale integration. Various other efforts in this direction in last 7-8 years include the agreement on maritime shipping and passenger & cruise shipping with neighbouring Bangladesh, pact with Sri Lanka on a maritime rescue centre, MoU with Spain on Cooperation in Port matters, with UAE on Institutional Cooperation on Maritime Transport, and various other maritime-related agreements with Netherlands, South Korea, Austria, etc. Re-Drawal of the High Risk Area in the Indian Ocean was a major gain for India on Global Maritime Stage in 2015, when the International bodies had agreed to India’s efforts to push back the High Risk Area (HRA) from 78 degrees East longitude to the 65 degrees East longitude.
India has abundant natural resources in the form it 7516 km long and rich coastline, a strategic location just above the Indian Ocean, Lakshwadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands as Union Territories further into the high waters, all providing it with unprecedented opportunities to use all these resources to take its economic growth to new highs and simultaneously become an influential stakeholder in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). When the NDA government assumed power in 2014, enhancing maritime power and infrastructure was one of the most urgent projects to take up. Changing its policy from ‘Look East’ to a stronger stance of ‘Act East’ formed a part of India’s commitment to strengthen and focus more on its Asia-Pacific connects, especially keeping the ASEAN countries at the centre of all the strategic and diplomatic decisions. A lot of it is rooted in the fact that these South Asian countries form a good block for India in terms of total trade, increasing export, attracting investments. These countries become even more important due to their proximity to the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and important straits that are used as trade routes like the Strait of Malacca. Some of these nations also possess small island territories and ports at strategic locations, which become significant in terms of maritime security and partnerships. Similarly, in the West, with active operationalisation and usage of the Chabahar in the West, a model is now in place as India has been able to look after both business and strategic ties.
India has also been actively able to augment its sea stakes and showcase its maritime interests through active naval diplomacy, vocal advocacy of sea affairs and the need of strengthening maritime positioning by Prime Minister Modi at various International forums, strong naval decision and joint exercises, humanitarian and anti-piracy cooperation, etc. He has spelt out his vision, “To me the Blue Wheel or Chakra in our national flag represents the potential of the Blue Revolution or the Ocean Economy. That is how central the ocean economy is to us.” Indian Naval Ships and aircraft are regularly deployed on Mission-Based Deployments in Indian Ocean Region to enhance maritime security. It also undertakes surveillance to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness and address contingencies that may arise. The 2021 launch of ‘The Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 will also play a major role in massively increasing India’s visibility in the international maritime sector, and strengthening maritime relations with different countries.
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