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When the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Dena sank near Sri Lanka, questions quickly arose about India’s responsibility in what many are calling its maritime backyard. The vessel had recently participated in a naval exercise in Visakhapatnam before issuing a distress call that prompted search-and-rescue assistance from the Indian Navy.

Incidents in the region are often interpreted through the assumption that the Indian Ocean forms India’s principal maritime sphere of influence, even as New Delhi frames its regional role as that of a “net security provider” through maritime surveillance, anti-piracy operations and regional security assistance.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal sovereignty extends only 12 nautical miles into the territorial sea, while the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) reaches 200 nautical miles and grants economic rights over resources but not authority over foreign military operations. Much of the ocean beyond these zones, therefore, is governed by the principle of freedom of navigation.

Yet the IRIS Dena incident raises a question: Who is responsible for security and crisis response in the Indian Ocean’s busiest sea lanes? This question is less one of jurisdiction and more related to the wider strategic structure of the Indian Ocean, where dense commercial shipping, critical energy flows and expanding naval deployments intersect across some of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

The Indian Ocean as a strategic maritime artery

The waters south of Sri Lanka where the IRIS Dena sank lie along one of the busiest maritime corridors of the world. Nearly 1,00,000 ships transit the Indian Ocean annually, carrying roughly 30% of global container traffic and about 42% of crude oil trade.

These sea lanes carry more than one-third of the world’s bulk cargo........

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