Delhi's Balancing Act in Western Indian Ocean

India is quietly stepping up its maritime engagement with Africa.

- Abhijit Singh

Earlier this month, the Indian Navy launched a new multinational exercise—the Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME)—off the coast of Tanzania, involving navies from 10 African countries. Around the same time, INS Sunayna—designated the Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) Sagar—set sail on a month-long deployment through the Western Indian Ocean, carrying a mixed crew of Indian and African personnel. Both moves are part of a wider push by New Delhi to expand its maritime footprint, burnish its credentials as a regional security provider, and cultivate deeper defence ties with Africa.

The symbolism behind these gestures is hard to miss. The AIKEYME exercise and IOS Sagar demonstrate India's ambition to become the "preferred security partner" in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). They embody not only Prime Minister Modi's vision for Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) but also the recently articulated MAHASAGAR framework—an effort to institutionalise regional maritime partnerships and assert India's leadership in the Global South. The presence of sailors from Mauritius, Seychelles, Kenya, Mozambique, and others aboard IOS Sagar lends credence to the idea that India is not working in isolation but in partnership.

India's moves also point to a maturing maritime strategy. At a time when Indian Ocean dynamics are growing more complex—shaped by both traditional security concerns and non-traditional challenges like piracy, trafficking, and climate-related disruptions—New Delhi is advancing a message of solidarity, shared awareness of maritime threats, and a willingness to offer its naval experience. Beyond asserting itself as a maritime power of consequence, it is making a bid for influence through cooperation, sustained presence, and normative leadership.