Prioritising the Western Indian Ocean in India’s Maritime Security Calculus

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The Indian Ocean region (IOR) has rapidly emerged as a key theatre in shaping the global geopolitical and geoeconomic order. The increasing volume of trade it facilitates underscores its growing importance.  The region handles over eighty percent of the world’s maritime oil trade and nearly ten billion tonnes of cargo annually—making it vulnerable to strategic challenges posed by emerging maritime security threats.  As a principal maritime security actor in the region, New Delhi has steadily expanded the operational reach of its navy over the last decade in response to the intensifying strategic realities and security matrix. 

The Indian Ocean region (IOR) has rapidly emerged as a key theatre in shaping the global geopolitical and geoeconomic order. The increasing volume of trade it facilitates underscores its growing importance. 

With the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a unified maritime theatre encompassing both the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Indian Ocean has assumed greater strategic currency. This framing has also brought renewed attention to the cartographic division between the Eastern and Western Indian Ocean theatres. India’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific has been extant and expansive over the last decade. New Delhi’s outreach to the Indo-Pacific region continues to be characterised by deepening strategic and maritime partnerships with like-minded countries. The Eastern Indian Ocean has, in many ways, emerged as a key theatre for India’s Indo-Pacific engagement, given that the location and interests of India’s partners lie in the region. Notably, the Eastern Indian Ocean also marks the critical interface between the Indian and the Pacific oceans. 

However, a broader view of India’s maritime security preparedness reveals a contrasting trend. Much of India’s investment in naval infrastructure appears to be directed toward the Western Indian Ocean. This focus may be driven by a range of pressing challenges—such as evolving maritime security threats, an increased presence of Chinese vessels, and the growing significance of India-Africa maritime cooperation. 

Source: Prepared by Shloak Gupta

Non-Traditional Threats and the Security Imperatives of the Western Indian Ocean

The Western Indian Ocean has become a vital arena in India’s maritime security calculus, particularly with the rise of non-traditional maritime security challenges. The resurgence in piracy along the coast of Somalia between 2007 and 2012—where ransom demands reached up to US$ 10 million—called for immediate attention towards the security of the western Indian Ocean Region. India’s response to such threats appears to be increasingly calibrated in character, as seen by the inauguration of a new airstrip and jetty at Agalega Island in Mauritius in 2024, and its ongoing participation in frameworks such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS, established in 2008). Exercises such as  NISHAR-IFC under IONS have helped enhance participants' understanding of contemporary maritime safety and security challenges. 

Environmental threats driven by climate change have also assumed centrality as a leading non-traditional security issue in the Western Indian Ocean—one of the most rapidly warming waters in the world. This region thus remains vulnerable to critical human security challenges, such as rising sea levels that endanger the lives and livelihoods of the vast human population that remains dependent on the oceans. Small Island Developing States such as the Maldives, Mauritius, and Seychelles have also flagged climate change as a primary national security concern. These risks are compounded by other non-traditional security threats such as Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, drug and human trafficking, and spillover effects of conflicts in Yemen and Mozambique—making the western IOR a major concern for India. 

The Africa Pivot: A New Vector in India’s Indian Ocean Strategy

In March 2025, India expanded its SAGAR framework into MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions), integrating the Global South as a key pillar of its maritime strategy for the IOR. This pivot was followed by the launch of Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME) in April 2025, a multilateral forum to consolidate the Indian Navy’s stature as the ‘Preferred Security Partner’ and ‘First Responder’ in the IOR. The IOS SAGAR—an initiative inaugurated on 8 May 2025 by the Indian Navy, with the deployment of INS Sunayna across the South-West Indian Ocean—exemplified India’s efforts/commitments to enhance maritime cooperation with African countries, which accounted for eight out of the ten participants. 

With the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a unified maritime theatre encompassing both the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Indian Ocean has assumed greater strategic currency. This framing has also brought renewed attention to the cartographic division between the Eastern and Western Indian Ocean theatres.

With growing threats from the Houthi rebels on Africa’s eastern coast and an expanding Chinese presence in strategic hubs such as Djibouti, India’s imperatives to remain the principal maritime security actor in the Indian Ocean call for greater attention toward the western IOR.

The China Challenge in the Western Indian Ocean

The increasing presence of Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean region has emerged as a critical challenge for India’s maritime security thinking. The deployment of such research vessels—often seen as spy ships and dual-use research vessels by China—poses the risk of a calibrated strategy that extends beyond the South China Sea (SCS) and the western Pacific Ocean. Beijing’s expanding footprint in the  Western Indian Ocean is further underlined by its military base in Djibouti and growing political and economic engagement with African countries. These actions have understandably caused concern in countries whose national interests and compulsions remain vulnerable to Chinese dominance in the region. Some of China’s ports are located strategically close to key maritime trade routes and straits. While the Gwadar Port lies near the Strait of Hormuz, the port of Doraleh lies in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Both are essential to drive up international trade and connectivity between Asia, Africa, and Europe. A contest between New Delhi and Beijing, in the maritime domain, can also be noticed on a multilateral level, as seen in China’s claims of widespread participation in the China-Indian Ocean Forum, designed as an attempt to foster and lead regional cooperation, akin to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). 

Charting a Western Course: India’s Emerging Maritime Interface

The increasing presence of Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean region has emerged as a critical challenge for India’s maritime security thinking. The deployment of such research vessels—often seen as spy ships and dual-use research vessels by China

India’s maritime efforts over the last decade appear to have been part of a larger design to enhance the operational reach of its navy in the Western Indian Ocean region. As a response to pressing non-traditional security threats, increased focus on India-Africa outreach and fast-paced spread of Chinese political influence, New Delhi has centred more attention on Western naval establishments. This westward reorientation is also seemingly timely given the growing possibilities of risks posed by naval escalation in the aftermath of rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Though the Eastern Indian Ocean receives high traction and more attention from global stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific interface, recent patterns suggest a continued momentum in India’s strategic attention towards the Western Indian Ocean. As maritime dynamics in the Western Indian Ocean continue to evolve, sustained Indian engagement in the region will be necessary to safeguard national interests and shape a stable regional order.

Sayantan Haldar is a Research Assistant with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.

Shloak Gupta is a Research Intern with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.

• International Affairs
• Neighbourhood
• Indian Foreign Policy
• Great Power Dynamics
• Defence and Security
• India
• Neighbourhood
• indian ocean region
• ins sunayna
• ios sagar mission
• maritime cooperation
• maritime security
• sagar initiative

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