Securing the Indian Ocean: India-Australia maritime partnership

Securing the Indian Ocean: India-Australia maritime partnership

From USSC Live by The United States Studies Centre

February 1, 2026 · 55 min · Episode 225

About this episode

The episode discusses the maritime security challenges in the Indian Ocean and the partnership between India and Australia to address these issues.

The Indian Ocean is fast becoming one of the world’s most geo-strategically contested maritime arenas. The region’s littoral and island states are grappling with how to respond to this strategic competition but also face multi-dimensional maritime security challenges. These, in turn, are exacerbated by climate change and other economic and social vulnerabilities. As the two largest maritime democracies in the Indian Ocean Region, Australia and India share a stake — and responsibility — in its stability and resilience. Both countries are well-positioned to assist littoral and island states in building their governance capacities to address common maritime security challenges. They can accomplish more by working together than alone, but this is easier said than done. Key questions to address include: What are the most pressing maritime security challenges facing the Indian Ocean region? How well are India and Australia currently engaging with littoral and island states and for what purpose? What practical steps can they take to help partners build sustainable governance capacity? And ultimately, what would a truly well-coordinated India-Australia capacity-building partnership look…

People in this episode

Host: United States Studies Centre

Guests: Rushali Saha, Dr Lavina Lee

Topics covered

  • maritime security
  • India-Australia relations
  • geo-strategic competition
  • climate change
  • governance capacity
  • littoral states

Keywords

  • Indian Ocean
  • maritime partnership
  • security challenges
  • Australia
  • India
  • capacity building
  • climate change
  • governance

Mentioned in this episode

Places: India, Australia, Indian Ocean

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