Security and Growth for All in the Region

SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) is India's strategic framework for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2015 during a visit to Mauritius, where he commissioned the offshore patrol vessel Barracuda. The Hindi word sagar means "ocean," giving the acronym a deliberate double meaning.

SAGAR organizes India's IOR policy around several themes:

• Maritime security cooperation with littoral states, including capacity building, hydrographic surveys, training, and joint patrols.
• Sustainable economic and infrastructure development, particularly in island states such as Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka.
• Collective action against non-traditional threats — piracy, terrorism, illegal fishing, trafficking, and natural disasters — with India positioning itself as a "first responder" and "net security provider."
• Respect for international maritime law, including UNCLOS, freedom of navigation, and peaceful dispute resolution.
• An "Indian Ocean identity" that includes extra-regional partners but is led by littoral states themselves.

SAGAR is widely read as India's response to expanding Chinese maritime presence in the IOR, including port investments associated with the Belt and Road Initiative and the so-called "string of pearls." It complements and overlaps with other Indian initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) launched by Modi at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok in 2019, and the broader Act East Policy. It also operates alongside plurilateral structures India participates in, such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), the Colombo Security Conclave, and the Quad.

In practice, SAGAR has manifested in coastal radar networks gifted to partner states, lines of credit for port and connectivity projects, HADR deployments (e.g., Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, 2019; COVID-19 vaccine and oxygen supplies under "Vaccine Maitri"), and anti-piracy escort operations in the Gulf of Aden conducted by the Indian Navy since 2008.