India’s Evolving Role In International Law – OpEd

India’s rise in global affairs is often described through its economic achievements, diplomatic initiatives, or expanding strategic footprint. Less discussed, yet increasingly significant, is India’s growing influence in the field of international law. Over the past decade, India has moved steadily towards a more engaged and proactive legal posture that emphasises cooperation, stability, and equitable governance.

This shift reflects neither confrontation nor ambition for dominance. Rather, it represents a natural evolution of India’s long-standing commitment to multilateralism, combined with the responsibilities that come with being one of the world’s major democracies and fastest-growing economies.

Maritime Governance

India’s maritime engagement in the Indo-Pacific has expanded in both scope and sophistication, reflecting a deliberate effort to anchor regional security in the principles of UNCLOS while building the operational capabilities needed to implement them. New Delhi consistently emphasises freedom of navigation, peaceful settlement of disputes, and the uninterrupted flow of maritime trade core legal commitments that it translates into practical actions across surveillance, cooperation, and capacity-building.

Over the past decade, India has invested heavily in maritime domain awareness. The Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region, established in 2018, has grown into a hub connecting dozens of partners, enabling real-time information exchange on shipping movements, safety incidents, and emerging threats. This is complemented by India’s integrated coastal surveillance network, which now spans hundreds of radar stations along the coastline and has been extended, through bilateral assistance, to several Indian Ocean island nations seeking stronger monitoring of their Exclusive Economic Zones.

Indian Navy regularly participates in major exercises from Malabar to Milan and conducts bilateral drills across Southeast Asia, the Gulf region, and East Africa, strengthening interoperability and crisis response. Anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions during cyclones and maritime emergencies, have reinforced India’s reputation as a reliable regional security provider.

Legal and institutional reforms have kept pace. The Maritime Anti-Piracy Act of 2022 provides clearer enforcement powers at sea, while policy frameworks such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) integrate maritime law, environmental safeguards and cooperative economic development. Parallel investments in port modernisation, sustainable fisheries, and offshore renewable energy align maritime governance with broader economic priorities.

For smaller coastal and island nations navigating an era of rising strategic competition, this combination of predictability and cooperation offers a measure of stability in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific.

Climate Resilience Diplomacy – Legal Frameworks For A Shared Future

During its G20 Presidency guided by the principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (“One Earth, One Family, One Future”) India steered an agreement on scaling climate finance, accelerating just energy transitions, and promoting global initiatives such as the International Biofuel Alliance. These outcomes reflected India’s effort to link environmental ambition with economic practicality for both advanced and developing economies.

India strongly pushed for operationalising the Loss and Damage Fund, arguing for predictable, concessional flows and governance structures that prioritise climate-vulnerable countries. Its position has been consistent across multiple forums, including the BASIC Ministerial, the Major Economies Forum, and the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, where India has underscored that the existing climate finance architecture remains fragmented and under-delivers against estimated needs of USD 1 trillion per year for developing economies.

India’s credibility in these debates is reinforced by domestic actions. It has pledged 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030, launched the National Green Hydrogen Mission with a projected investment of USD 20 billion, and initiated a national carbon market to align industry with long-term decarbonisation. These steps enable India to speak with both developmental sensitivity and technical authority in global forums.

India’s role in establishing and steering the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) has become one of its most recognized contributions to global climate governance. Created in 2019, the coalition now brings together more than 40 countries and institutions to promote resilient, climate-proof infrastructure systems through shared standards, risk assessments, and capacity-building tools. 

India hosts and supports the CDRI secretariat, and its initiatives such as the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) extend technical expertise to climate-vulnerable regions, especially small island developing states. Through these efforts, India has positioned itself as a constructive and solutions-oriented partner in international cooperation, demonstrating its ability to translate domestic disaster-management experience into global public goods without adopting an adversarial or confrontational diplomatic posture.

Through the International Solar Alliance, Clean Energy Ministerial, and multiple regional environment dialogues, India continues to advance the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), framing it not as a constraint but as the foundation for a just global transition. Its approach combining climate science, legal principle, and development economics has helped bridge divergent interests and keep equity at the centre of an increasingly complex climate governance landscape.

Digital Public Infrastructure: Guiding Norms For A Changing World

The rapid expansion of digital ecosystems has created unprecedented opportunities and regulatory challenges. India’s experience in building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has entered global conversations, especially through international forums such as the G20 and the United Nations.

India has consistently positioned itself as a champion of a fair and future-ready digital order, urging the global community to adopt frameworks that place people at the centre of technology. 

The push for interoperable, cross-border payment systems reflects a belief that digital public infrastructure should enable seamless global inclusion, not fragmentation. And through its call for responsible, human-aligned AI development, India is steering international conversations toward a tech ecosystem.

What sets India apart is its emphasis on accessibility and public value. Rather than treating digital systems solely as commercial or strategic tools, India has highlighted their broader developmental role. This approach has made Indian digital models a reference point for many countries looking to build inclusive, legally sound digital governance structures.

Investment Law And Arbitration

The revised 2016 Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) Model now the basis for India’s new-generation investment agreements introduces clearer definitions of investment, narrows the scope of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), and embeds mandatory exhaustion of local remedies for at least five years before international arbitration can be initiated. 

This approach strengthens regulatory predictability while reinforcing domestic judicial capacity, which is further supported by specialised commercial courts and improved insolvency mechanisms under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, where recovery rates and timelines have steadily improved.

India has also modernised its arbitration ecosystem through the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Acts of 2015, 2019, and 2021, aimed at enhancing transparency, limiting excessive judicial intervention, and promoting India as an arbitration hub through institutions such as the India International Arbitration Centre. 

These reforms reflect a broader pattern seen across the Global South, where nations are recalibrating investment protections to provide stability for investors while safeguarding public policy space in sectors such as taxation, environment, and public health.

By reshaping its treaty architecture, strengthening domestic institutions, and aligning with contemporary global expectations for clarity and fairness, India contributes to a worldwide effort to modernise investment governance.

The result is a more balanced framework neither investor-averse nor overly protectionist designed for a changing economic order where legal certainty, transparent dispute resolution, and sustainable development are increasingly interconnected.

India’s Legal Identity

India’s recent trajectory shows a shift from consumer to contributor in maritime governance, a 40-nation Information Fusion Centre and as a generator of regional security capacity. In climate resilience, India has moved from participant to agenda-setter, leveraging its 500 GW non-fossil target, 33% emissions-intensity reduction and influencing emerging global frameworks. In investment arbitration, India has advanced from observer to rule-shaper, with its 2016 Model BIT, treaty recalibrations, and strengthened commercialism in global investment governance.

Taken together, these steps form a data-backed architecture of credibility: a system where domestic reforms reinforce India’s ability to bridge developed and developing positions, harmonise innovation with regulation, and anchor global conversations in stable, law-centred principles at a time when geopolitical volatility is reshaping the international order.

Conclusion

India’s evolving role in international law stems from a consistent belief that shared rules, cooperative mechanisms, and inclusive institutions are essential for global stability.

Whether in safeguarding maritime order, strengthening climate action, advancing digital governance, or contributing to fair economic rules, India is emerging as a committed partner in global norm-building. As the international system adapts to new challenges, India’s legal voice pragmatic, balanced, and collaborative is set to become increasingly influential.

Unlike earlier decades when India often positioned itself primarily as a voice of the developing world, the country now operates as both a bridge-builder and a system-shaper, aligning domestic reforms with global expectations while advocating durability, equity, and legal clarity in multilateral forums.

Its expanded surveillance networks in the Indian Ocean, the institutionalisation of climate finance debates during the G20 Presidency, the rollout of rights-based digital governance frameworks, and the modernisation of investment treaties each reflect a broader transformation: India increasingly embeds its geopolitical aspirations within coherent legal and regulatory architectures.

It grows from incremental reforms, institutional strengthening, and an understanding that global rules must be responsive to new technological, environmental, and economic realities. India’s approach anchored in dialogue, multilateralism, and respect for international law offers a stabilising influence at a time when many global frameworks face fragmentation and geopolitical strain. 

As new challenges emerge across oceans, markets, and digital ecosystems, India’s steady, reform-driven engagement positions it as a constructive actor capable of mediating differences, shaping norms, and helping sustain a more inclusive and resilient international order.