On 20 October 2025, on the occasion of Deepavali, the great Indian festival of lights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking from aboard India’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, drew attention to the centrality of the Indian Ocean in India’s strategic calculus. He recalled that 66 per cent of the world’s oil supply and 50 per cent of global container shipments pass through the Indian Ocean. “And in securing these routes,” he said, “the Indian Navy stands guard like the sentinel of the Indian Ocean.”
The perception of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans as one strategic space gained traction in the mid-2000s, particularly in India, after the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a speech to the Indian Parliament in August 2007, referred to the “Confluence of the Two Seas”. Within a decade, “Indo-Pacific” became a globally accepted term after US President Donald Trump, in his address to the APEC Summit in Vietnam in 2017, called for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
India’s Indo-Pacific vision was articulated by Prime Minister Modi at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018. He said that the Indo-Pacific region, inter alia, “stands for a free, open, inclusive region which embraces us in a common pursuit of progress and prosperity. It includes all nations in this geography, as also others beyond, who have a stake in it”.
In a sense, this was an organic evolution of India’s foreign and security policy, whose reorientation had begun in the 1970s and accelerated after the end of the Cold War in 1991. From a predominantly continental orientation, India began to focus on its maritime advantages, particularly its dominant position in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy was at the forefront of this reorientation. From a coastal force, it became a balancing force in the 1970s and a blue-water navy by the 1980s, dominating the northern and central Indian Ocean from the 1990s.
India’s economic liberalisation also led it to view countries to its east, particularly the Tiger economies and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as attractive partners for economic growth and shared prosperity. Thus, in 1992, India’s Look East Policy (LEP) was launched and institutional dialogue commenced with ASEAN. In 2012, India and ASEAN became strategic partners, and the relationship was elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022. Over the years, India also established plurilateral groupings with other partners, including BIMSTEC, focusing on the Bay of Bengal region, and the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) mechanism. In 2014, India elevated its LEP to the Act East Policy, significantly adding substance to its engagement.
India’s Indo-Pacific vision has many building blocks. In 2015, Prime Minister Modi launched India’s policy for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). The SAGAR policy has five components: ensuring the safety and security of the Indian mainland and island territories and a safe, secure and stable IOR; deepening economic and security cooperation with friends in the IOR through capacity building; collective action and cooperation; working towards the sustainable development of all; and increased maritime engagement, recognising that primary responsibility for the stability and prosperity of the region lies with those in the region. India is also a founder member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), a 23-member body established in 1997 that promotes economic cooperation, maritime security and sustainable development. India’s Act East Policy serves as the umbrella framework that upholds ASEAN centrality and ASEAN’s various mechanisms, including the East Asia Summit as the apex platform for dialogue.
Freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce is a central element of India’s Indo-Pacific vision. In 2024, under Operation Sankalp, the Indian Navy deployed more than ten warships, including guided missile destroyers and frigates, in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea to protect commercial shipping in the wake of Houthi-led attack
The 2004 tsunami established India’s credentials in disaster relief and rehabilitation operations. From the eastern shores of Africa to the Pacific islands, India has extended humanitarian assistance in times of disaster and crisis. India’s speedy assistance to Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008; its response when neighbouring Maldives faced a freshwater crisis in 2014, delivering drinking water under Operation Neer; its standing shoulder to shoulder in relief and rescue efforts in tsunami-struck Indonesia in 2018; its role as the first responder when two tropical cyclones devastated Mozambique in 2019; the launch of Operation Brahma, an extensive tri-service operation, following a massive earthquake in Myanmar in early 2025; and its timely assistance to cyclone-ravaged Sri Lanka in late 2025 all underscore this commitment. On 19 January, India also extended 30 tonnes of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the Philippines following a super typhoon.
Development partnership is an intrinsic part of India’s Indo-Pacific vision. The Indian model of development cooperation involves grants-in-aid, concessional lines of credit, capacity building and technical assistance. Significantly, it is unconditional, transparent, sustainable, financially viable, and undertaken at the request of the partner state, in keeping with its priorities. India’s vaccine outreach during the Covid-19 pandemic to both developed and developing countries was unprecedented. In 2023, during its presidency of the G20, India succeeded in amplifying the voice of the Global South and championed development cooperation. In 2025, Prime Minister Modi announced MAHASAGAR, an updated version of the SAGAR doctrine, marking an evolution from a regional focus to a global maritime vision with an emphasis on the Global South.
As a preferred maritime security partner in the Indo-Pacific, India’s engagement has included bilateral and plurilateral joint exercises, naval symposia, capacity building, and the export of defence equipment, either as grants or under defence lines of credit, at the request of partner states. A crucial aspect of maritime security is enhanced maritime domain awareness. Accordingly, India has pursued white shipping agreements with several countries and has established a state-of-the-art Information Fusion Centre (IFC–IOR) to facilitate the sharing of real-time information with member countries.
Freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce is a central element of India’s Indo-Pacific vision. In 2024, under Operation Sankalp, the Indian Navy deployed more than ten warships, including guided missile destroyers and frigates, in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea to protect commercial shipping in the wake of Houthi-led attacks. This marked the largest such deployment by any country.
At a time of global churn and unpredictability, India continues to uphold its role as a responsible member of the international community, contributing to stability, prosperity and a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.
Ambassador (Retd) Suchitra Durai is a former Ambassador of India to Thailand and a career diplomat with extensive experience in India’s foreign and security policy.
Support independent community journalism. Support The Indian Sun.
Follow The Indian Sun on X | Instagram | Facebook
Donate To The Indian Sun
Dear Reader,The Indian Sun is an independent organisation committed to community journalism. We have, through the years, been able to reach a wide audience especially with the growth of social media, where we also have a strong presence. With platforms such as YouTube videos, we have been able to engage in different forms of storytelling. However, the past few years, like many media organisations around the world, it has not been an easy path. We have a greater challenge. We believe community journalism is very important for a multicultural country like Australia. We’re not able to do everything, but we aim for some of the most interesting stories and journalism of quality. We call upon readers like you to support us and make any contribution. Do make a DONATION NOW so we can continue with the volume and quality journalism that we are able to practice.
Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
Team The Indian Sun
