India, US discuss maritime cooperation to protect undersea cables, shipping routes

India and the US Navy have discussed plans to enhance maritime cooperation and improve coordination to protect undersea cables and key shipping routes.

Navy Chief Admiral DK Tripathi held a series of high-level meetings with senior US officials during his six-day visit (November 12-17) to the United States. He met Admiral Samuel J Paparo, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command; Admiral Stephen T Koehler, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, and Lieutenant General James F Glynn, Commander of the US Marine Forces Pacific.

An Indian Navy spokesperson posted on X on Saturday that “the two sides also explored ways to safeguard sea lines of communication and critical undersea infrastructure”.

The Navy said the Admiral’s interactions reaffirmed the enduring partnership between the Indian and US navies and the growing synergy with the US Marine Corps and joint forces — anchored in shared values and a commitment to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific.

Both sides reviewed key pillars of India-US defence cooperation, focusing on strengthening maritime security, deepening coordination at sea, enhancing interoperability and expanding operational engagements across the Indo-Pacific.

The two navies also discussed collaboration in emerging domains, including unmanned systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), cyber and space-enabled maritime operations, to improve readiness and resilience at sea.

Talks covered priority areas of mutual interest such as enhanced information-sharing and maritime domain awareness, building on mechanisms like the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative and links with the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR).

India and the US also agreed to work on improving coordinated responses for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, counter-piracy efforts and other non-traditional security challenges.

Plans were also discussed to conduct more complex and frequent bilateral and multilateral exercises, including MALABAR, PASSEX and those under the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), along with preparations for the next edition of the MILAN exercise, to be hosted by India early next year.