Examine how MAHASAGAR builds on SAGAR in India's Indo‑Pacific approach.

SAGAR (2015) cast India as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean. MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions, articulated during the Prime Minister's Mauritius visit in March 2025 [1] — retains that purpose while widening its geography, instruments and partners.

Continuity: the same core, given specificity

• MAHASAGAR is presented as going "beyond SAGAR", not replacing it — mutual security and shared growth for littoral partners remain the organising idea [1].
• The Indo‑Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), announced at the 2019 East Asia Summit, already gave SAGAR "first‑order specificity" through seven pillars — maritime security, ecology, resources, disaster risk reduction, connectivity, capacity‑building and science cooperation [2]. MAHASAGAR inherits this architecture.

Expansion: what is genuinely new

• Scope moves from the Indian Ocean rim to the wider Global South, adding trade for development, concessional finance and technology sharing to a largely security‑centric vision [1].
• It is increasingly operational, not declaratory. ICG Ship Shaunak sailed from Chennai for Perth on 25 September 2026 under the QUAD‑at‑Sea Ship Observer Mission with six Sea Riders (two each from India and Japan, one each from Australia and the US), expressly framed within MAHASAGAR [3].
• The instrument chosen is civil‑maritime: the Indian Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, US Coast Guard and Australian Border Force [4] — law‑enforcement agencies, which lowers escalation and targets everyday crime at sea, such as IUU fishing that removes roughly 26 million tonnes of seafood worth about US$23 billion annually [5].

Gaps to close

• Sea Riders observe but cannot act; no arrangement lets an officer authorise boarding in a partner's EEZ [3].
• Capability lags commitment: the ICG's fleet of about 151 ships and 78 aircraft [6] also carries coastal security and rescue duties, so each long voyage costs home patrol days.

MAHASAGAR is thus SAGAR scaled up — from regional reassurance to region‑wide development partnership. Converting observer missions into shiprider arrangements, linking the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership [4] to port‑state inspection of illegal catch, and expanding coast guard capacity would let the vision deliver on SDG 14 and a rules‑based maritime order.