The Bay of Bengal Fulcrum: Explaining India's New Maritime Security Vision
The new SHANTI doctrine marks a shift from military presence to regional governance, with the Bay of Bengal as its first test case. An analysis of its principles, objectives, and implications for the Indo-Pacific.
The Pre-requisite: Understanding the Maritime Context
To comprehend India's evolving maritime security posture in the Bay of Bengal, it is essential to understand the foundational concepts, historical policy shifts, and the key institutions involved. This section provides the necessary background.
KEY TERMS
- SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) — India's maritime cooperation policy doctrine, first articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, which frames the Indian Ocean as a space for collective development and security.
- SHANTI (Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity) — A normative framework introduced by India on July 13, 2026, designed to provide the principles and methods for implementing its maritime vision, emphasising trust-based cooperation over competition.
- Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Threats — Challenges to state and human security that are not primarily military in nature, such as climate-induced disasters, illegal fishing, piracy, human trafficking, and supply chain disruptions.
- White Shipping Information-Sharing Agreement — A technical and operational pact between the navies or coast guards of two or more countries for exchanging prior information on the movement and identity of commercial, non-military merchant vessels.
BACKGROUND & TIMELINE
The Bay of Bengal has historically been a conduit for trade, culture, and ideas connecting South and Southeast Asia. In the contemporary era, its strategic importance has grown, linking India’s domestic economic development with its foreign policy objectives and the broader geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.
- March 2015: Prime Minister Modi articulates the vision of SAGAR during a visit to Mauritius, marking a formal shift towards viewing the Indian Ocean region through a lens of shared security and economic interests.
- Post-2015: India intensifies its focus on the Bay of Bengal as a core component of its ‘Act East’ policy, seeking deeper integration with the economies and security architectures of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- 2025: New Delhi announces the MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) doctrine, expanding the geographical and conceptual scope of SAGAR to the wider Indo-Pacific and the Global South.
- July 13, 2026: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar introduces the SHANTI framework while launching India's campaign for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the 2028-29 term.
- July 2026: A meeting of National Security Advisers from BIMSTEC nations is held in New Delhi, where key principles for maritime cooperation under the new vision are adopted.
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
- Ministry of External Affairs (MEA): The nodal ministry for formulating and articulating India's foreign policy, including maritime doctrines like SAGAR, MAHASAGAR, and SHANTI. It leads diplomatic engagement to build consensus around these frameworks.
- Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC): A regional organisation established in 1997, comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Headquartered in Dhaka, it has emerged as the primary institutional platform for India to operationalise its security and connectivity initiatives in the Bay.
- Indian Navy & Indian Coast Guard: The principal maritime law enforcement and military agencies responsible for implementing security cooperation on the water, including joint patrols, information sharing, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
What is the SHANTI framework?
The SHANTI (Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity) framework, unveiled by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on July 13, 2026, represents the latest evolution in India's maritime security thinking. It is not a new institution or a military alliance, but a normative doctrine—a set of guiding principles designed to shape regional cooperation. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, its core purpose is to shift the focus of maritime security from competition and military power to demand-driven cooperation and long-term resilience. The framework prioritises establishing shared norms, building mutual trust, and ensuring integrity in cooperative actions as the basis for durable security.
The introduction of SHANTI is a response to a perceived gap in the regional security architecture. While the capacities of littoral states to monitor their waters have grown, this has not been matched by the development of common rules and coordinated mechanisms, particularly for non-traditional threats. As noted by analysts Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy and Raghvendra Kumar (The Hindu, July 31, 2026), the Bay of Bengal, one of the world's most disaster-prone regions, still lacks a robust, coordinated mechanism to respond to natural calamities, illegal fishing, and the maritime dimensions of humanitarian crises like the Rohingya refugee situation.
How does SHANTI evolve from SAGAR and MAHASAGAR?
SHANTI is officially positioned as a logical progression of India's previous maritime doctrines, providing the operational 'how' for the 'what' and 'where' established by its predecessors. The evolution began in 2015 with SAGAR, which articulated India's foundational intent to be a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region, framing maritime security as an issue of collective development. A decade later, the MAHASAGAR doctrine of 2025 expanded this strategic reach, formally connecting security challenges in the Indian Ocean with the wider Indo-Pacific and the Global South.
Building on these, the 2026 SHANTI framework provides the operational philosophy. As described in government articulations, it is the 'grammar' of maritime security, detailing the method for translating vision into tangible, cooperative actions. This approach aims to position India as a “preferred security partner” and “first responder” through trust-based engagement rather than dominance. The doctrine thereby broadens the concept of security from protecting national maritime spaces to governing shared maritime commons against a range of threats.
Why is the Bay of Bengal the first 'laboratory' for SHANTI?
The Bay of Bengal was deliberately chosen as the initial theatre to implement the SHANTI framework for a confluence of geographic, strategic, and institutional reasons. First, the Bay is a single, interconnected ecological and maritime system. Challenges like cyclones, fish stock depletion, and marine pollution inherently cross national boundaries, creating a natural impetus for cooperation among the littoral states of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. These nations face similar concerns, from coastal erosion to protecting undersea communication cables.
Second, the region's strategic geography is conducive to cooperation. Unlike parts of the Western Indian Ocean marked by active conflicts, the Bay of Bengal region is relatively stable, allowing for the development of long-term institutions. Third, the Bay is central to India's 'Act East' policy and its economic integration with ASEAN. China's increased presence in the Bay through its Maritime Silk Road initiative, driven partly by its reliance on the nearby Malacca Strait, has added geopolitical urgency for India to consolidate a rules-based regional order. SHANTI's consensus-based approach through a multilateral forum like BIMSTEC offers a distinct alternative to Beijing's largely bilateral, state-led infrastructure projects.
Finally, the region suffers not from a lack of institutions but from their fragmentation. BIMSTEC provides a ready-made platform to align existing mechanisms under a common normative framework. India's central geography gives it a convening role, which SHANTI aims to leverage for regional stewardship.
What concrete steps are being taken to implement this vision?
The transition of SHANTI from principle to policy is underway, primarily through the BIMSTEC platform. The July 2026 meeting of BIMSTEC National Security Advisers in New Delhi produced concrete outcomes reflecting the new doctrine's emphasis on norm-building and practical cooperation. During the meeting, member-states formally adopted a common set of principles for maritime law enforcement and for conducting Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, a significant step towards standardising regional responses.
Furthermore, BIMSTEC members agreed to conduct their first-ever joint maritime security exercise in the Bay of Bengal, scheduled for November 2026. This exercise will test operational interoperability and serve as a visible symbol of the trust-based cooperation that SHANTI espouses. According to official sources, discussions are also in an advanced stage for a region-wide white shipping information-sharing agreement. Such an agreement would significantly enhance maritime domain awareness for all member states by creating a common operational picture of commercial traffic in the Bay.
Why It Matters Now, and What Lies Ahead
The formalisation of the SHANTI doctrine is timely for three reasons. First, it is a response to intensifying geopolitical competition in the Indian Ocean. By offering a cooperative, norms-based alternative, India seeks to consolidate its position as a consensus-builder. Second, the escalating frequency of non-traditional threats, especially climate-induced disasters, demands a shift from episodic aid to an integrated regional governance framework. Third, it signals a maturation of India's foreign policy, moving beyond statements of intent to articulating a clear methodology for its role as a leading power.
Looking ahead, the vision's trajectory will be determined by near-term actions. The successful execution of the first BIMSTEC joint maritime security exercise in November 2026 will be a critical milestone, demonstrating whether principles can translate into coordinated action. A key diplomatic objective for New Delhi over the next two years will be the finalisation of the BIMSTEC white shipping information-sharing agreement. The ultimate test for the SHANTI framework will be its scalability—whether the trust and norms built in the Bay of Bengal can be expanded across the wider Indo-Pacific. India's upcoming term on the UN Security Council for 2028-29 will provide a global stage to champion this vision.
The broader implication of this shift is an attempt to influence the currency of power in maritime affairs. Its success would signal a potential rebalancing from a focus on military might to one on stewardship, from deterrence to resilience, and from strategic rivalry to a shared responsibility for the global commons. In an increasingly fragmented world, India's push for a rules-based, cooperative order in its maritime neighbourhood is a significant statement on the future of regional governance.