9th Indian Ocean Conference in Mauritius and India’s Vision from SAGAR to MAHASAGAR

The Ninth Conference Convenes in Mauritius

The ninth edition, hosted in Mauritius

The ninth Indian Ocean Conference was held in Port Louis, Mauritius, in April 2026. India's External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, addressed the inaugural session, making India a central voice at the gathering.

The conference is a regional forum that brings together governments and experts from across the Indian Ocean to discuss cooperation, security and connectivity. India used the platform to set out how it sees its own role in the region.

Why the Indian Ocean Matters to India

Trade, energy and security in a single ocean

Why it matters is that the Indian Ocean carries a large share of the world's trade and energy, and India sits at its centre with a long coastline and island territories. The security and prosperity of the region are therefore tied directly to India's own.

A regional forum lets India help shape the terms of cooperation and present itself as a trusted partner rather than a distant power. Hosting the conference in Mauritius, a close maritime neighbour, underlines India's place in the region's affairs.

From SAGAR Towards a Wider MAHASAGAR

What India's evolving vision signifies

What is the significance of this vision lies in how it has grown. In 2015, in Mauritius, India set out SAGAR, meaning Security and Growth for All in the Region, casting India as a partner in its maritime neighbourhood. In 2025, again in Mauritius, that idea was widened into MAHASAGAR.

MAHASAGAR, Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions, extends the vision to the wider Global South and rests on three ideas: trade for development, capacity building for sustainable growth, and mutual security for a shared future.

Distinguishing features of India's approach

What India brings to the region

The table sets out the main ways in which India engages the Indian Ocean and what each involves. Together they explain why India describes itself as a net security provider for the region.

Read together, the rows show a role built on security, connectivity and partnership, rather than on power projection alone.

MAHASAGAR in practice through IOS SAGAR

The vision is not only a statement; it is put into practice through concrete deployments. The clearest example is Indian Ocean Ship SAGAR, under which an Indian Navy ship sails with crew members drawn from several partner nations of the region.

Such deployments turn the idea of mutual security into shared training and collective readiness, and signal that India sees the region's security as a joint effort rather than a task for any single navy.

What to Watch in India's Regional Role

Three things to track from here

India's regional vision translates into three developments worth tracking, since a vision is judged by whether it produces working cooperation on the water.

1. (a) From words to projects. Whether MAHASAGAR turns into concrete trade, training and security projects with partner states.
2. (b) Island partnerships. Whether ties with island neighbours such as Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka continue to deepen.
3. (c) Balancing other powers. Whether India sustains its role as a first responder as other powers expand their presence in the region.

The real test is whether the region's states see India as the partner they turn to first when they need help.

The Indo-Pacific, the Forums and the Blue Economy

How the conference fits India's wider strategy

Contemporary linkages tie the conference to India's engagement in the wider Indo-Pacific, where it works with partners to support a free, open and rules-based maritime order. The Indian Ocean is the western half of that strategic space.

India's regional role runs through several overlapping forums, including the Indian Ocean Rim Association of littoral states and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium of regional navies, alongside the conference itself.

The vision also connects to the blue economy, the sustainable use of ocean resources for growth, which India promotes as a shared interest of the region's developing states.

UPSC relevance and exam focus

Where this fits in the UPSC-CSE syllabus

This topic maps to General Studies Paper II: bilateral, regional and global groupings involving India, and India's neighbourhood, with strong links to maritime security in Paper III.

For Prelims, hold the high-yield facts: the full forms of SAGAR and MAHASAGAR, the year and place of each, Indian Ocean Ship SAGAR, and the regional forums such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium.

For Mains, two framings recur: India as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean, and the maritime security challenges India faces and the steps it takes to meet them.

Recurring linked concepts an aspirant should keep in working memory:

• SAGAR: Security and Growth for All in the Region, set out in 2015.
• MAHASAGAR: the wider 2025 vision for the Global South.
• Indian Ocean Rim Association: the grouping of Indian Ocean littoral states.
• Blue economy: the sustainable use of ocean resources for growth.

A common Prelims trap is to confuse SAGAR with MAHASAGAR; SAGAR is the 2015 regional vision, while MAHASAGAR is the wider 2025 vision for the Global South.

A common Mains trap is to treat India's role as uncontested. Other powers are also expanding in the region, so India's position as the partner of first resort has to be sustained, not assumed.