Navigating India’s Maritime Diplomacy and Blue Economy

India is ornamented with a long and beautiful coastline, flanked by rich and vibrant coastal resources. But how significant is the position that India holds in South Asia with regard to its maritime diplomacy? In order to govern both transnational and national issues, India’s influence as a maritime hegemony has always been a conundrum due to: A) The overarching influence of geopolitics in land-border conflicts and internal security; B) India’s unacceptance of China’s growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Blessed with a 7516 kilometres long coastline and an EEZ extending over 2.2 million square kilometres nautical miles, India’s strategic location serves as a vast gateway of trade to flourish its blue economy - broadly defined as fostering economic growth through sustainable utilisation of marine resources. Yet, it is constrained owing to several factors that require attention to maintain India’s influence in the Global South.

Why Does India's Maritime Significance Matters?
In 2020, Cyclone Amphan severely hit India’s eastern coastal regions, displacing millions of people whose livelihoods were dependent on the marine resources. The blue economy, which thrives on management of sustainable fisheries and coastal resilience, was crippled. Yet, India’s commanding position couldn’t rally enough regional cooperation for disaster response. These geopolitical disruptions and increasing dominance of powers like China that are steadily tightening their grip on the Indian Ocean, compounded with ecological imbalance reflect deficient policy regulations exclusively in this ecosystem. This creates a distress in India’s maritime ambitions. 

The India-China Maritime Politics:
The simultaneous growth of India and China in the recent decades, combined with the ongoing disputes over their shared land border, has resulted in a mix of rivalry and tension between these two leading Asian nations. IOR and Bay of Bengal (BoB) accounts for about 95% of India’s trade and a significant portion of its energy imports, which has attracted investments in these regions. The Indian Ocean Regional Association (IORA), Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) serves as the key maritime organizations in which Delhi plays a leading role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), resisting piracy and IUU fishing along with strengthening India’s blue economy objectives. 

But India’s outreach and geographical stance in the IOR and BoB region in administration and management of resources is affected due to China’s increasing influence as a major leader across the Indian Ocean. China’s rise is evident by expansion of its geopolitical network in the IOR and Indo-Pacific. This strategy has been considered as ‘encirclement of India’ aimed at offsetting India’s expansion as a major power in the region, through its “String of Pearls” strategy of ports, bases, and infrastructure stretching from mainland China to the Horn of Africa. This threatens India’s sea-borne supply lines and trade market. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) validates Pakistan’s hold over PoK, while giving China a permanent strategic power in South Asia has additionally complicated the maritime equation of India. This poses a dual challenge: reviving its leadership influence across the region, while also projecting itself as a responsible leader who can reassure smaller littoral states of their autonomy and prosperity. In response, Delhi has sought to build its own strategy- “Necklace of Diamonds”- a counter-network of partnerships, naval exercises, and building extensive Coastal Radar Systems (CRS). 

More importantly, India has emphasized humanitarian diplomacy. From delivering vaccines and disaster relief to strengthening coastal surveillance, its maritime engagements are framed as cooperative rather than coercive. However, China’s strategy to keep India on the backfoot creates instability for its naval dominance and the objectives of the blue economy remain aspirational rather than effective.  

The Void in India’s Blue Economy:
One of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, India hosts 5.3% of global marine diversity with about 15,000 coastal and marine species. Among the nine coastal states, nearly 4 million individuals are dependent on the coastal economy, comprising fisheries, ports, and coastal tourism for their livelihoods.

However, despite having an extensive coastline and huge potential of resources, India’s blue economy has so far remained more rhetoric than reality, contributing only 4 percent to the nation’s GDP and generates on the margin of $28 billion annually. Reportedly, IUU fishing, piracy, trafficking and other illicit exploitation of ocean resources has distorted India’s blue economy. As a remedial action, India’s Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 is a flagship initiative aiming to modernise ports, improve shipping infrastructure and promote renewable marine energy and  prioritizing  “optimal utilization” of resources.

The growing geopolitical and economic competition with China beyond the territories has led to the establishment of projects such as SagarMala and Kaladan Multimodal project (KMTTP). This marks a conscious return of India reshaping its maritime footprint by investing in infrastructure and modernizing ports, rail links, trade hubs and other logistics to facilitate India’s coastal economy. 

What is the Way Forward?
The idea is often exaggerated in speeches and policy papers, but on the ground, it remains as a promise rather than in practice. We often capitalize our “demographic dividend” and IT potential as the means of global success, but rarely do we address the ocean as a gift of India’s maritime future and a true frontier of growth in its blue economy. Therefore, with the help of implementing the comprehensive frameworks using a multi-stakeholder approach, India needs to revamp its economic stewardship in this sphere. India’s maritime leverage stands as one of the core pillars of economic growth and we must continue to safeguard and preserve our maritime heritage.