New Delhi: India will host a high-level international workshop on maritime security on Friday. 70 participants from India, the European Union, and key Indian Ocean countries will come together to deliberate on the growing strategic challenge of protecting critical submarine infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the undersea communication cables in the Indian Ocean region.
The Track 1.5 EU-India regional seminar will bring together, over one day, maritime security experts, military, and government agency representatives, including the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, along with others from Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, and Seychelles. Discussions will centre on assessing emerging risks, sharing best practices, and finding policy-, technology-, and cooperation-driven solutions to protect essential undersea assets critical to global economic and digital security.
Submarine data cables form the backbone of the modern digital economy, carrying nearly 99 per cent of intercontinental internet traffic and linking continents, island nations, and remote regions to the global network. These cables enable international commerce, financial transactions, defence communications, and everyday digital services. Yet despite their critical importance, most of these assets lie exposed on the ocean floor, physically accessible and extremely hard to monitor, making them very vulnerable to accidental damage, sabotage, and hostile activities that could trigger far-reaching global consequences.
Against this background, the New Delhi seminar will deepen EU–India–Indo-Pacific maritime cooperation on securing critical undersea infrastructure. The conference will discuss current threats ranging from physical interference and cyber vulnerabilities to geopolitical risks, also focusing on the urgent need for increased coordination at both the regional and international levels to ensure resilience and rapid response mechanisms.
The workshop is being jointly organised by India’s National Maritime Foundation and the European Union, and implemented under the EU’s security and defence initiative ESIWA+ - Enhancing the EU’s Security Cooperation in and with Asia and the Indo-Pacific. The project is co-funded by the European Union along with Germany and France.
European Union Ambassador to India Hervé Delphin described the focus on submarine cables as an important step in the maturing EU–India maritime security partnership. He underlined that maritime cooperation remains a central pillar of the overall strategic relationship between the two sides. According to him, the EU Action Plan on Cable Security provides a vital framework for enhancing the protection and resilience of undersea cable infrastructure and forms the basis for deeper cooperation and joint strategies with key partners such as India. He also underlined that the EU’s growing engagement in the Indian Ocean assumes added significance in light of emerging connectivity initiatives linking Europe, India and the wider region, including the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor.
According to Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan (Retd), Director-General of the National Maritime Foundation, the workshop would help to take regional maritime dialogue on undersea infrastructure security, described as fundamental to economic security and national sovereignty, to the next level. He added that the discussions would identify vulnerabilities, highlight international best practices, and promote practical solutions that integrate technological capabilities, policy frameworks and cooperative mechanisms.
Taking forward the deliberations of the 4th EU–India Dialogue on Maritime Security and the Ministerial Meeting on the Protection of Critical Maritime Infrastructure, which was held in Brussels on November 21 on the sidelines of the 4th EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum, the New Delhi seminar will further reinforce the common understanding reached: that the protection of critical maritime infrastructure is vital for the security and prosperity of both the European Union and the Indo-Pacific.
Scholars also agree that the safety of undersea infrastructure demands an increase in real-time surveillance, more robust monitoring systems, and coordinated response strategies between governments, private operators, and international partners.