Objectives1. Increased appreciation of

the centrality of the Indian Ocean to stability and prosperity

2. Exchanged best maritime security practices3. Enhanced shared understanding of

national/agency perspectives4. Energized new US-India interagency

networks

Method

1. Explore national and agency-based perspectives of maritime security in the Indian Ocean

2. Identify and prioritize of opportunities and challenges for India-U.S. cooperation, to set the context for next steps

TargetPresentation of Findings:1. What actionable opportunities can we

identify from the big picture trends in the Indian Ocean?

2. What is the value of India-U.S. cooperation for each?

3. Which opportunities deliver the most value over the long-term?

Delegates’ FindingsPriority areas for bilateral

cooperation:1. Coastal law enforcement2. Environmental Stewardship3. Coordinated regional capacity-

building 

Constraints identified:4. Regional friends and partners

(Pakistan; Iran)5. Organizational stove-pipes and

delays in information sharing6. U.S. ambiguity regarding UNCLOS  

Academic Observations• Bilateral cooperation with India will

continue to have limited strategic pay-off so long as it does not pay attention to India’s self-assessed drivers and constraints

• Bureaucracy is sometimes used to cope with lack of trust and familiarity 

• India is not ready for a robust regional conversation and will resist U.S. moves in the region until it is

• U.S. strategic ambiguity is widely believed in India; sometimes fair, sometimes not