Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue 2026 to Be Held in New Delhi

The Indian Navy will hold the 2026 edition of the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD-2026) in New Delhi over three days, from 3 to 5 November 2026. The IPRD is the Navy's apex-level annual international strategic dialogue and its chief platform for outreach at the strategic level. The National Maritime Foundation (NMF), the Navy's knowledge partner, is the principal organiser.

Theme and participation

This year's theme is Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Maritime practitioners, scientists, academicians, policymakers and experts from 18 countries across the Indo-Pacific will take part. The choice of theme rests on a simple point: the oceans are joined to one another, but the scientific knowledge, the technology and the institutions needed to understand and manage them are spread unevenly. Climate change, pressure on marine resources, supply-chain weakness and threats to critical maritime infrastructure cross national boundaries, so the dialogue will look past the usual limits of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to take in the social sciences, life sciences and humanities as well.

The five thematic sessions

• Session one deals with academic networks, research, and human capital development.
• Session two takes up maritime situational awareness and the protection of critical maritime infrastructure.
• Session three is on oceanographic science and climate resilience.
• Session four looks at collaborative approaches to ocean governance and maritime resilience.
• Session five covers transformative maritime technologies and their dual-use implications.

Opening day

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is to deliver the Commemorative Address on the first day. The opening day also carries a special session called Perspectives from the Flag Bridge, which will seat former naval chiefs from India and Sri Lanka together, and an ambassadorial interaction titled Sahyog Ka Samvaad.

The frameworks behind it

Successive editions of the dialogue have taken up selected parts of the IPOI's lines of thrust. Set in the frame of India's maritime vision of MAHASAGAR, the dialogue tries to turn the broad cooperation framework of the IPOI into proposals that can actually be acted on, at national, sub-regional and pan-regional levels, through existing bilateral, trilateral and plurilateral structures.