The United States conducted three Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) challenging Indian maritime claims in fiscal year 2025, the highest number recorded against India in a single year since publicly available records began in 1991. The finding is significant not only for the claims they challenge but also because they come amid expanding India-US naval cooperation and growing friction in the broader bilateral relationship.
The US maintains that its Freedom of Navigation (FON) programme is a legal tool, not a political instrument directed at particular countries. A comparison of historical data for India and China, however, raises an important question: while maritime law provides the stated justification for these operations, does the frequency with which they are conducted also reflect the changing state of bilateral relations?
History of the US Freedom of Navigation programme
The US FON Programme began in March 1979. Its purpose is to protect US freedom of navigation, overflight (flight or passage of aircraft over a specific area, territory, or country without landing), and other lawful uses of the seas against what Washington considers excessive maritime claims by coastal states.
The programme combines diplomatic protests with operational assertions by US military forces. An assertion is a formal declaration, physical action, or legal claim made by a nation to state its rights, jurisdiction, or sovereignty over a specific area of the sea.
The programme emerged during negotiations over the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was adopted in 1982. Although the US has not ratified UNCLOS, it recognises many of its provisions concerning traditional uses of the oceans as reflecting customary international law.
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In undertaking FONOPs, the US takes the status of a “persistent objector”. Its operations are intended to demonstrate non-acceptance of unilateral restrictions on freedom of navigation (in the US’s interpretation) beyond the jurisdiction permitted under international law by the coastal states and prevent them from becoming established through state practice.
The US insists that the programme is applied impartially, including against allies and partners, and is not intended to signal hostility towards any particular country. The historical record, however, provides an opportunity to examine that claim.
What maritime claims of India does the US contest?
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The principal disagreements concern India’s interpretation of coastal-state jurisdiction, the rights of foreign military vessels and aircraft in India’s maritime zones and India’s maritime boundary agreements.
Under India’s Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976, and subsequent notifications, New Delhi has established certain requirements that Washington considers inconsistent with its interpretation of international law.
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