When the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was negotiated within the Nineteen Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties, India stood with the world’s smallest and most weak states. Alongside Pacific Island international locations, India championed the precept that the seabed past nationwide jurisdiction needs to be the “frequent heritage of mankind”. It was a exceptional second: a big growing nation aligning itself with island nations, not for benefit, however for equity.
This was not new for India. As early because the Nineteen Fifties, Jawaharlal Nehru recognised the ocean’s centrality to India’s future, declaring: “Whichever approach we flip, we’re drawn to the seas. Our future safety and prosperity are intently linked with the liberty and the assets of the oceans.” That foresight set the stage for India’s enduring position as each a maritime nation and a maritime chief. Half a century later, the ocean faces pressures unimaginable on the time of UNCLOS. Local weather change is heating and acidifying the seas, sea ranges are rising, and unlawful and unregulated fishing is stripping marine life from the water column.
The Indian Ocean, dwelling to one-third of humanity, is already one of the crucial climate-vulnerable basins on earth.
India now has each the chance and the duty to play a historic management position as soon as once more. This time, the duty is to not draft legislation, however to form follow — making certain that the Indian Ocean turns into not a theatre of rivalry, however a laboratory of sustainability, innovation, and resilience.
The case for a Blue Ocean technique
India’s Blue Ocean Technique ought to relaxation on three pillars: stewardship of the commons, resilience, and inclusive progress.
First, stewardship. India should proceed to claim that the Indian Ocean is a shared area, not a contested one. By prioritising ecosystem restoration, biodiversity safety, and sustainable fisheries, India can set the tone for cooperative administration, relatively than aggressive exploitation.
Second, resilience. Because the local weather disaster intensifies, ocean nations should concentrate on adaptation and preparedness. India can lead by establishing a Regional Resilience and Ocean Innovation hub — one which strengthens ocean commentary networks, improves early warning programs, and switch expertise to small island growing states and African coastal nations.
Third, inclusive progress. The Indian Ocean should change into a driver of prosperity for all littoral states. Inexperienced delivery, offshore renewable power, sustainable aquaculture, and marine biotechnology provide pathways to growth which can be suitable with local weather objectives. Realising this potential, nevertheless, would require sustained funding and coordinated regional motion.
It’s encouraging that the monetary tide is starting to show. On the Blue Financial system and Finance Discussion board (BEFF) held in Monaco, in June 2025, governments, growth banks and personal buyers highlighted a €25 billion pipeline of present ocean investments and introduced €8.7 billion in new commitments, with near-parity between private and non-private sources. The Finance in Widespread Ocean Coalition, bringing collectively 20 public growth banks, introduced annual pledges of $7.5 billion, whereas the Improvement Financial institution of Latin America doubled its blue financial system goal to $2.5 billion by 2030.
At COP30 in Belém, the Brazilian Presidency launched the One Ocean Partnership as a part of the Belém Motion Agenda, committing to mobilise $20 billion for ocean motion by 2030. These indicators matter. They exhibit that the ocean — lengthy marginal in local weather finance — is now firmly on the worldwide agenda.
India should seize this second to channel world financing into regional priorities. An Indian Ocean Blue Fund, seeded by India and open to contributions from growth banks, philanthropy, and the personal sector, might present the institutional structure wanted to show pledges into tasks.
Safety by way of sustainability
A lot of as we speak’s discourse on the Indian Ocean is framed by way of “Indo-Pacific technique”, naval stability, freedom of navigation, and safe sea lanes. These issues are official. However they need to not obscure a extra elementary actuality: ocean insecurity begins with ecosystem collapse and local weather disruption.
Unlawful, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, coral reef degradation and intensifying storm surges erode livelihoods and undermine social stability. Addressing these threats requires a shift from conventional notions of maritime safety towards safety by way of sustainability.
India’s doctrine of Safety and Development for All within the Area (SAGAR) articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mauritius in 2015, provides an necessary anchor, “We search a future for the Indian Ocean that lives as much as its title as a zone of peace, stability and prosperity,” he mentioned.
The Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard, working alongside civilian companies, can deepen regional cooperation in maritime area consciousness, catastrophe response and ecosystem monitoring – aligning safety aims with environmental stewardship. Equally necessary is the story India chooses to inform. Not of rivalry, however of duty. Not of dominance, however of stewardship. As Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has famous, India’s method to the Indian Ocean is “cooperative, consultative, and outcome-oriented,” aimed toward shared prosperity and stability.
The guideline needs to be easy and resonant: “From the Indian Ocean, for the World.”
India’s historic duty
On the Stockholm Convention in 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi warned, “We don’t need to impoverish the setting any greater than we need to impoverish our individuals.” That perception stays strikingly related.
COP30 in Belém (2025) and the G-20 Summit in Johannesburg recognised the significance of terrestrial and marine ecosystems for local weather stability, sustainable growth, and neighborhood resilience in addition to anchoring scaling up of finance and assist for growing international locations, aligning with the fairness dimensions of ocean motion.
Momentum is constructing. With the outcomes of the third United Nations Ocean Convention (UNOC3) in Good, COP30 in Belém, and the entry into pressure of the Biodiversity Past Nationwide Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Settlement, 2026 is shaping as much as be a pivotal yr for ocean governance. India’s readiness to ratify the BBNJ Settlement presents a possibility to exhibit how the Indian Ocean area can pioneer globally related options, from inexperienced delivery corridors and blue bonds to inclusive marine expertise switch and punctiliously ruled ocean-based carbon dioxide elimination. This agenda might additionally function a defining theme for India’s chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Affiliation.
India’s historical past in ocean diplomacy provides it credibility. India’s future in ocean management provides it the duty. The Indian Ocean, the cradle of a number of the world’s oldest civilisations, can now change into the cradle of a brand new blue financial system, one which marries prosperity with sustainability, and resilience with justice.
The problem is evident: to maneuver past rhetoric, to align imaginative and prescient with finance, and to construct partnerships that endure. For the world, the message is pressing: the ocean will not be a void to be crammed or a frontier to be conquered. It’s the basis of life itself.
If India leads with ambition, humility, and inclusivity, the Indian Ocean can as soon as once more exhibit what was evident throughout UNCLOS negotiations: that even in probably the most complicated of arenas, cooperation can prevail over battle, and solidarity over rivalry.
The time to behave is now.
Kilaparti Ramakrishna is the Director of Marine Coverage Centre and Senior Adviser to the President on Ocean and Local weather Coverage on the Woods Gap Oceanographic Establishment, the world’s largest impartial oceanographic establishment at Woods Gap, Massachusetts, U.S.
