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India will launch a regional dialogue in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in March 2027 to bring governments and industry leaders together on strengthening supply chains, maritime infrastructure and economic cooperation as geopolitical tensions and shipping disruptions reshape regional trade.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal unveiled the initiative, called The Andaman Dialogues, at a curtain-raiser event in New Delhi on October 13, positioning it as an annual platform to translate regional trade agreements into business partnerships and explore alternatives to vulnerabilities in global supply chains.
The inaugural edition, scheduled for March 2027 at Swaraj Dweep in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, will focus on “Ensuring Resilience of Sea Assets,” covering shipping routes, ports, undersea communication cables and financial systems that support maritime commerce.
“The Andaman Dialogues will bring governments and industry together to exchange ideas, explore new economic partnerships and deliberate on building more reliable and diversified supply chains in this region, rooted in fairness, trust, and mutual growth,” Goyal said.
India’s expanding economic engagement and free trade agreements in the region provide a foundation for closer cooperation, he added.
The initiative comes as disruptions around key maritime chokepoints, rising shipping risks and changes in cargo routes expose businesses to higher freight costs, insurance premiums and delivery delays. These pressures are prompting governments and companies to reconsider their dependence on established trade corridors and diversify sourcing and logistics networks.
The organizers said the dialogue would also examine the scope for greater trade in local currencies, regional payment systems and cross-border investment in maritime infrastructure. Moving away from established international currencies for trade settlements, however, would require sustained negotiations and significant changes to financial arrangements.
The Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) and the Centre for Domestic Economy Policy Research (C-DEP) are jointly organizing the initiative. The curtain-raiser, held at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, brought together diplomats from around 20 countries, policymakers, defense veterans, maritime professionals and business representatives.
Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, chairman of the National Maritime Foundation and former chief of naval staff, said maritime connectivity was central to regional economic development, given the dependence of trade on shipping lanes, ports, energy infrastructure and undersea communication networks.
Maintaining the reliability of these assets requires sustained cooperation among maritime stakeholders, he said, describing the dialogue as an opportunity to identify shared priorities and strengthen regional resilience.
The March meeting will organize discussions around three broad areas: open shipping lanes, maritime infrastructure and financial connectivity.
The shipping agenda will cover the reliability of critical maritime corridors, maritime domain awareness, information-sharing arrangements and regional crisis coordination. Infrastructure discussions will examine port resilience, shipping continuity, shipbuilding and repair capacity, and the protection of undersea cables.
Financial connectivity will focus on cross-border capital flows, local-currency settlements, regional payment systems and financing for ships, ports and subsea infrastructure.
A tabletop exercise will test how participating countries and stakeholders could coordinate their responses to maritime disruptions, including the exchange of operational information and crisis management.
The location is central to the initiative’s ambitions. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie close to important sea routes linking the Indian and Pacific oceans, giving India a strategic vantage point from which to engage Southeast Asian economies and wider Indo-Pacific partners.
The platform also reflects India’s effort to connect its trade diplomacy with maritime security and industrial resilience, areas that have become increasingly intertwined as companies reassess supply chains amid geopolitical uncertainty.
A panel discussion at the New Delhi event, titled “Reimagining Regional Economic Cooperation,” brought together representatives from Djibouti, Seychelles and Sri Lanka, along with Shyam Jagannathan, director general of shipping, and Raj Srivastava, dean of the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service. Jaijit Bhattacharya, president of C-DEP, moderated the discussion.
The longer-term test for The Andaman Dialogues will be whether annual discussions can generate concrete commercial partnerships, investment commitments and practical arrangements for managing disruptions, rather than remain a forum for exchanging policy views.
For India, the initiative offers an opportunity to use its maritime geography and expanding trade relationships to deepen economic engagement across a region whose shipping networks are vital to global commerce.
