India’s Indo-Pacific strategy comes of age at IPRD 2025

Three days of dialogue, diplomacy, and direction define the Indian Navy's cooperative maritime roadmap.

- ARITRA BANERJEE

When the seventh edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD 2025) closed at the Manekshaw Centre on 30 October, it did so without fanfare or slogans—but with an unmistakable sense of purpose.

Over three days, the Indian Navy and its knowledge partner, the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), turned a familiar catchphrase—“capacity building and capability enhancement”—into a working plan for regional security and growth.

The theme, “Promoting Holistic Maritime Security and Growth through Regional Capacity Building and Capability Enhancement,” ran through every panel and publication. Delegates and experts from more than 30 nations, stretching from East Africa to the South Pacific, debated how cooperation—not competition—can keep the Indo-Pacific open, secure, and sustainable.

The opening day on 28 October began with Admiral Karambir Singh, former Chief of the Naval Staff and Chairman of the NMF, warning that the maritime domain faces “strategic turbulence” driven by great-power rivalry, non-state actors, and climate stress. His remedy: a cooperative maritime architecture that endures beyond personalities or power cycles.

Indian Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi followed with a clear line of sight. The Navy, he said, is executing MAHASAGAR—Maritime Holistic Approach for Security And Growth for Allin the Region—the successor logic to Prime Minister Narendra Modis SAGAR doctrine, He released Future Maritime Warfare, an NMF monograph urging navies to match concept with capability.

A multi-nation panel—Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and South Africa—tackled the first operational theme: “Cooperative Capacity-Buildingand Capability-Enhancement to Address the Security Impacts of Climate Change.” Its outcome: a recommendation for aregional impact-assessment and action plan linking environmental data tonaval tasking.