World Maritime Day: Sonowal Joins IMO Chief at Busan Meet

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal carried two messages to Busan in South Korea: that maritime rules must be framed so every country can actually apply them, and that India wants partners ready to build with it. He spoke at the government roundtable held on World Maritime Day and then met the Korean marine equipment industry.

Who was at the roundtable

Sonowal shared the platform with Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO); Nam Jaeheon, Vice Minister of Oceans and Fisheries of South Korea; Marianne Sivertsen Naess, Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Policy; and Marina Hadjimanolis, Deputy Minister for Shipping of Cyprus. The session was chaired by Moon Seong-hyeok, a former Korean minister of oceans and fisheries.

India's position on global rules

India's case, the Minister said, is that international standards should remain ambitious and universal while their enforcement takes account of differences in national circumstances, stage of development, technology and access to money. He invoked the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and argued for common standards backed by cooperation that lets every member state meet them. Describing IMO conventions as an operational lighthouse for shipping at a time of geopolitical instability, piracy and disruption in the Red Sea, he said gaps are best closed by joint working groups that pair countries which have already implemented a convention with those still building capacity, by training surveyors and inspectors, by help in drafting laws and by time-bound plans. The purpose, he added, is to leave behind lasting national capability instead of continuing dependence.

What India has already done

Five maritime laws passed in 2025 came into force in March 2026. India's Maritime Single Window now covers 69 ports and terminals, and the Alang-Sosiya yard has 115 ship recycling facilities that meet the Hong Kong Convention within the IMO framework.

The Korean pitch

The same argument ran through the Minister's meeting with the Korea Marine Equipment Association (KOMEA), formed in 1980, which speaks for 304 equipment makers, design firms, shipbuilders and repairers, among them HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries. KOMEA will open its first India office in Mumbai on 30 October, a move the two governments had welcomed in April under VOYAGES, their framework for cooperation in shipbuilding, shipping and maritime logistics. Engines, propulsion, deck machinery and electrical and navigation systems are still largely imported, Sonowal said, and that is where Korean suppliers have an opening. KOMEA Chairman Ho-il Kang said members had begun preparing to enter the Indian market within two years.

The numbers behind the offer

India cleared a shipbuilding package of about $7.8 billion in September 2025. Shipbuilding output rose 40 per cent in 2025 over the previous year and has grown by more than 80 per cent in 2026. The pipeline of vessels receiving direct government support covers more than 120 ships worth over $1.27 billion, with export orders making up more than 80 per cent of that value. By aggregating demand from government entities, the ministry has given Indian yards order book visibility of more than 400 vessels worth about $23 billion over the next ten years.