Sea lines of strategic synergy: India’s Navy and the rise of MAHASAGAR diplomacy

As the Naval Commanders’ Conference 2025, held at Karwar, Karnataka, and New Delhi, drew to a close, it became evident that India’s naval diplomacy has matured into a cornerstone of national strategy. Not merely a theatre of defence readiness, the Indian Navy is now central to India’s emergence as a regional anchor in the Indo-Pacific. This is a story not of muscularity, but of maritime mentorship — a quiet rise powered by credibility, compassion, and strategic coherence.

India’s transition from SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) to MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security Across the Regions) reflects more than a semantic shift. It signals a recalibrated strategic and maritime outlook that positions India as a preferred security partner and responsible first responder, while reaffirming the Indian Ocean as a cooperative — not contested — zone.

The relevance of maritime power in India’s geopolitical posture is neither recent nor accidental. In the mid-20th century, historian and strategist KM Panikkar framed India’s destiny through a maritime lens, asserting that “the vital importance of sea power has been ignored in Indian political thought for too long.” His concept of the Indian Ocean Strategic Arc envisioned the region not merely as a transit zone but as a space of civilisational convergence and strategic contest.

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Centuries earlier, the Chola naval expeditions in the Bay of Bengal reflected a confident assertion of mercantile outreach and strategic influence. Their reach extended as far as modern-day Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula, showcasing India’s ancient maritime ambition and naval sophistication. Today, India’s maritime strategy reclaims that legacy — combining history with contemporary relevance.
This resurgence also parallels the intellectual resurgence of Panikkar’s maritime realism, which is now echoed in India’s strategic doctrines, particularly in recognising the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as a decisive theatre in 21st-century geopolitics.

The Karwar leg of the 2025 Commanders’ Conference symbolised this maritime confidence. With nine new piers and key operational facilities commissioned under Project Seabird, Karwar has evolved from a base into a western seaboard fulcrum. The expanded infrastructure strengthens India’s capacity for sea control, multi-mission deployments, and logistics sustainability in the Arabian Sea.
The ceremonial flag-off of INS Sunayna as IOS SAGAR was not merely a gesture of visibility. As the vessel embarked with personnel from nine Friendly Foreign Nations (FFNs), it became a mobile institution of collaborative learning — a floating classroom, a diplomatic mission, and a symbol of maritime solidarity.

At Dar es Salaam, INS Sunayna hosted Indian and African sailors during the inaugural AIKEYME 2025 exercise. Co-hosted with the Tanzanian Navy, the exercise included maritime domain awareness drills, joint EEZ surveillance, and coordinated sea operations. Its message was clear: unity without uniformity.
AIKEYME builds upon the principles articulated in the Gandhinagar Declaration (2022), promoting practical maritime cooperation between India and Africa. In contrast to China’s infrastructure-led maritime outreach, India’s model emphasises co-ownership, skill-sharing, and operational interoperability.
From hydrographic assistance to MDA tools, India offers maritime capacity-building rooted in trust, not transaction. As echoed in an African proverb quoted during the event: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

India’s commitment as a maritime first responder was reaffirmed during Operation Brahma, launched in response to the devastating March 2025 earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand. Indian Navy ships delivered over 440 tonnes of relief supplies, including medical kits and sanitation equipment, showcasing the seamless synergy of humanitarian response and strategic outreach.
From the 2004 Tsunami to the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake and now to Yangon, India’s naval HADR tradition is rooted in responsiveness without rhetoric, delivering impact with quiet resolve.
This mode of humanitarian diplomacy reflects strategic empathy — a nuanced understanding that influence in the Indo-Pacific is better earned through presence and partnership than through prescription. It also aligns with India’s Neighbourhood First policy and broader Indo-Pacific strategic frameworks like the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).

In the Bay of Bengal, Tiger Triumph 2025 marked the fourth tri-service HADR-focussed exercise between India and the United States. From joint air drops to slithering ops and a Combined Coordination Centre at Kakinada, the exercise reinforced India’s growing interoperability with key global partners.
Unlike kinetic war-gaming drills, Tiger Triumph is framed around non-traditional security threats, particularly humanitarian disasters. This aligns with India’s cooperative security model — one that enhances credibility, fosters trust, and diffuses regional anxieties.
The exercise is also a signal of maritime readiness with restraint, a subtle yet potent hallmark of India’s maturing naval posture.

The second phase of the conference in New Delhi broadened the strategic horizon. The unveiling of the Indian Navy Space Vision, Operational Data Framework, and the veterans’ compendium “Navy for Life and Beyond” reflects a force investing not just in platforms, but in ecosystem readiness. Digitalisation of operational workflows, leveraging space-based ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), and expanded HR planning illustrate a Navy aligning itself with new domains of warfare and technological sovereignty.
Engagements with CDS, Service Chiefs, the Foreign Secretary, and G20 Sherpa highlighted the convergence between maritime action and national strategy. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri emphasised the fluid geopolitical order, while Amitabh Kant recognised the Navy’s role in economic security and global standing. This is relevant, especially in safeguarding trade corridors, energy routes, and undersea cables.

The path to MAHASAGAR is paved with cooperative intent and pragmatic planning. India’s maritime future will hinge on institutionalised India-Africa naval dialogues and joint exercises with ASEAN, IOR, and BIMSTEC member states. Blue economy collaborations and eco-port development will be on the anvil, as will strategic maritime fellowship schemes for developing nation scholars. One would see an expanded role for the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) as a dialogue-led maritime security platform.

BIMSTEC, often seen as an underleveraged framework, presents enormous potential for regional maritime synergy. With a shared bay, BIMSTEC nations can co-develop maritime domain awareness architecture, crisis response protocols, and marine biodiversity initiatives under a shared governance rubric.
As John J. Mearsheimer noted during the Rising Bharat Summit 2024, India remains an “aspiring great power” with the moral legitimacy and democratic character to stabilise the Indo-Pacific. This admiration, echoed across strategic capitals, highlights the Navy’s rising profile — welcomed with aspiration, not apprehension.

In a world where maritime zones are increasingly contested, India chooses connectivity over coercion. The Navy is the sinew of Indian foreign policy — linking vision to vessel, doctrine to diplomacy. From Karwar to Dar es Salaam, from Yangon to Kakinada, India’s maritime presence is anchored in trust. Sea lines are becoming lifelines, transforming India from a continental power with maritime interests into a maritime power with continental depth.
As the Indian Ocean reawakens in the Indo-Pacific, the Indian Navy is no longer just a sentinel. It is the strategic sculptor of a more inclusive, resilient, and synergistic seascape.