Ships of Statecraft: India’s Maritime Turn

India’s ascent is no longer a forecast; it is a reality. It is among the top four economies, one of the fastest-growing, and the most populous country in the world. Its diplomacy is poised and agile, engaging the United States (US), China, Russia, and the Global South without formal alliances.

India is not simply rising. It is positioning itself to lead. True global leadership in the 21^st century, however, demands more than economic heft or diplomatic agility. It hinges on a nation’s ability to shape the flows of trade, energy, and influence that course through the oceans.

Maritime power has always defined global leadership. From ancient empires to the age of sail, and from Pax Britannica to the US-led postwar order, control of sea lanes has enabled states to shape markets, secure borders, and uphold rules. In today’s world, maritime strength is not just about naval fleets, itt is about building comprehensive maritime capacity: strong commercial shipping, smart ports, green shipbuilding, and control over supply chains.

India understands this strategic imperative. In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced SAGAR—Security and Growth for All in the Region—to reframe India’s role in the Indian Ocean. In 2025, he returned to Mauritius to launch MAHASAGAR, a broader vision expanding India’s maritime engagement beyond South Asia to the wider Global South. The ambition is clear: to become a responsible maritime actor beyond the subcontinent.

Still, a wide gap separates ambition from capability. Despite its growing economic footprint, India faces structural maritime weaknesses. In FY 2024–25, India operated 1,545 registered ships and more than 200 ports, including 12 classified as major. Together, these facilities handled 1,593.1 million metric tonnes of cargo—853.6 million through major ports and 739.5 million through non-major ones. However, the country still lags in critical areas: shipbuilding capacity, port modernisation, skilled labour, and access to green financing. Its share of global shipbuilding remains below 1 percent. Without deliberate intervention, India risks becoming a maritime consumer, not a maritime power.

The global landscape makes this vulnerability urgent. In 2024, China built over half of the world’s ships, according to UNCTAD. It also holds a dominant position in ship recycling, port construction, and maritime logistics, often backed by state subsidies. Meanwhile, the global merchant fleet is aging. As of 2024, the average vessel was 22.4 years old, with over half surpassing the 15-year mark—a demographic that points toward a massive wave of fleet retirements by 2045. Without alternative capacity, global maritime flows could concentrate perilously in one source, amplifying strategic and operational risk.

Clealry, India’s maritime investment matters—not only for national resilience but also for global balance. A country of India’s size and ambition cannot outsource its maritime future. It must cultivate an industrial ecosystem that can produce ships, manage ports, develop maritime technologies, and anchor its own trade security. This challenge calls for a conceptual lens that distinguishes between sea power used for coercion and that exercised to sustain an open, stable maritime order—a distinction recognised in leading works on contemporary maritime strategy.

It is in this latter tradition that the concept of liberal maritime power becomes useful. “Liberal” here is not ideological; it denotes a rules-based approach that safeguards freedom of navigation, ensures equitable access to international waters, and resists the monopolisation or coercive control of critical sea lanes. For India, embracing this model is both a strategic necessity and an opportunity to align its maritime rise with a broader vision for an open Indo-Pacific.

India has the potential to become such a power. Through the Sagarmala programme, it plans to invest over US$80 billion by 2035 in port-led development and green logistics. MAHASAGAR extends this vision by fostering maritime cooperation with East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Island nations. The Maritime India Vision 2030 adds a sharper industrial focus—setting the goal of making India one of the world’s top ten shipbuilding nations.

But domestic investment alone is not enough. India needs strategic partners who can accelerate this transformation—partners with advanced shipbuilding capabilities, clean technologies, and aligned geopolitical values.

South Korea is one such partner. In 2024, Korea built 28 percent of all ships globally, second only to China. More importantly, Korea excels in the high-value, low-emission vessels, such as LNG carriers, ammonia-fuelled ships, and dual-fuel propulsion systems. Its “Big Three”—Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Hanwha Ocean—dominate global green ship markets. Under its “Green-Ship-K 2030” strategy, Korea is investing in lifecycle decarbonization, supporting the International Maritime Organization’s GHG-SMART initiative for net-zero ship technology.

India and Korea already share a foundation for maritime cooperation. A 2017 Memorandum of Understanding laid the groundwork for collaboration in shipbuilding and ports. Today, that can expand into a comprehensive maritime value chain: ship design, construction, port logistics, digital MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul), and recycling. In 2024, Hanwha Ocean’s acquisition of the U.S.-based Philly Shipyard and the yard’s first LNG vessel order highlight Korea’s growing role in strengthening allied maritime capabilities and secure supply chains.

The US is also moving. In 2025, Washington passed the SHIPS for America Act, declaring shipbuilding a matter of national security. The Act commits billions to revitalise domestic shipyards and diversify production away from China. Korea is expected to be a key contributor, and India should consider aligning its own strategy to this emerging industrial security axis.

For India, this means more than buying ships or attracting FDI. It must cultivate sovereign capabilities to build, operate, and sustain its own maritime assets. That includes domestic reforms—training skilled labour, expanding access to green shipping finance, and adopting digital port solutions. It also means joining global maritime coalitions.

Sea power in the 21^st century is no longer about warships alone. It is about ecosystems—of infrastructure, data, energy, and trust. Aircraft carriers matter. But so do smart ports, green shipyards, and resilient logistics. The future will belong to nations that can build and govern these ecosystems together.

Now is India’s moment. If it can lead not only on land but also at sea, India will help shape a freer and more balanced maritime order. Liberal fleets are not just vessels; they are instruments of leadership. It is time for India to build them and to lead with them. 

source : orfonline