Inheritors of a rich maritime past, India and the ASEAN region have had formidable maritime relations since the earliest times. As they entered the twenty-first century, both began to look for greater maritime cooperation with each other. Several initiatives such as regular discussions over the safety of sea lanes of communication (SLOC), coordinated patrols, bilateral visits, port-calls by ships, training of naval officers in the schools of the Indian Navy, and intelligence sharing in maritime matters have been taken up. One of the most significant parts of these initiatives is the joint naval exercises between India and the ASEAN countries. Today, such exercises have become an important facet of maritime relations giving both 'strategic depth' to their relations and better understanding between the navies.

Since the 1990s, the Indian Navy has conducted large number of bilateral and multilateral naval exercises with various ASEAN countries with the largest number being conducted with the Singapore Navy. Other exercises have been conducted with Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. In April-May 2007, India conducted bilateral naval exercises with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. India's maritime profile as a counterbalance against an aggressive China, the absence of any maritime dispute with any ASEAN country and its benign image has helped develop strong naval ties between the two regions. Therefore, to seek a strategic maritime dimension to their relation is advantageous for both sides. Usually, bilateral exercises are more viable since the multilateral exercises require greater coordination between large numbers of nations. While the bilateral ones act as important CBMs between two countries, multilateral exercises receive greater publicity given the involvement of a large-scale naval apparatus which exposes each navy to both technical expertise and strategic maneuverability.

This is evident from the MILAN series of multinational exercises, hosted by the Indian Navy since the early 1990s. The MILAN series involving the navies of South Asia and Southeast Asia have gone a long way in fostering closer cooperation with the navies of countries in the Indian Ocean Region. The essential feature of such exercises is the participating navies' power projection using their sophisticated warships and armoury and in turn exposing themselves to advanced tactics and techniques of other participating navies.

These exercises involve combative capabilities like warships, submarines, destroyers, and aircrafts. For example, during India's joint exercise with Myanmar, two Khukri-class warships were used while with Singapore in March 2004, the operation was led mainly by a submarine Shalki and three warships, INS Brahmaputra, INS Taragiri and INS Amba. India during its joint exercise with China operated with the guided-missile destroyer, INS Ranjit, and two other ships including the INS Kulish, a guided-missile corvette and the INS Jyoti, a replenishment tanker. These suggest that the country uses the best of its ships during such joint exercises in order to enhance its profile in the maritime world. Joint naval exercises are also carried out with a 'definite purpose' agreed by the participating countries. For example, the India-Russia joint naval exercise in April 2007 was aimed at weeding out terror activities at sea, while the focus of the exercise with Sri Lanka was search and rescue, anti-piracy and pollution control. In the case of Singapore, the motive involved enhancing interoperability and training of the navies as the exercise had sea phases in its program with intermediate and advanced level exercise by their respective ships.

Despite the fact that the Indian Navy's first-ever naval exercise outside the Commonwealth, was held with the Indonesian navy, the ASEAN region has not engaged India in a robust manner. With the exception of Singapore, India-ASEAN countries naval exercise are not yet a regular feature as it is within ASEAN and between ASEAN and countries like Britain, Australia and the US. This is primarily because India did not figure as a strategic player in the ASEAN radar, due to their frozen relations earlier. With the end of the Cold War, India's image of being "Soviet-centric" disappeared and India reemerged with a 'Look East' policy and as a strategic partner of the US. This helped in improving trust between ASEAN and India and subsequently created the need for more joint exercises between them.

Maritime cooperation has therefore, been improving and this upward trend can be seen in India's keenness to be involved in the trilateral framework between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for securing the Malacca Straits. ASEAN countries are seeking India's cooperation with respect to specific transnational maritime threats. So far India has worked together with the region in areas like search and rescue, and countering piracy, though the relationship has not yet achieved great strategic depth. However, in view of India's participation in the annual Shangri-La Dialogue and interactions through ARF and CSCAP there is a clear acknowledgement of India's rising naval profile in the region. However, India must carry on with its maritime and defence cooperation with the ASEAN countries without appearing to be domineering. In the long run, this will ensure India-ASEAN maritime relations shape into a strategic partnership involving regular joint naval exercises.