When Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in New Delhi on April 20, 2026, the conversation quickly moved to the seas. The two leaders formalised one of India's most consequential maritime partnerships in years—a comprehensive framework dubbed VOYAGES (Vision for Operation of Yard Assisted Growth with Efficiency and Scale), covering shipbuilding, port development, shipping logistics, and maritime heritage.
The Centre had announced plans to procure over 400 vessels in the foreseeable future, a pipeline worth ₹2.2 lakh crore, during India Maritime Week 2025. South Korea, home to three of the world's five largest shipbuilders, is now being invited to be the anchor partner in building the capacity to fulfil that pipeline on Indian soil.
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The most concrete deal to emerge is a non-binding MOU between HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), a subsidiary of HD Hyundai and one of the world's leading shipbuilders, with an identified cluster developer and the Maritime Development Fund (MDF) for the joint development, financing, and operation of a large greenfield shipyard in southern India.
This builds on an existing CSL-HD KSOE MoU signed in September 2025, and HD Hyundai's earlier MOU with the Tamil Nadu government in December 2025, giving the India-Korea shipbuilding relationship increasing institutional depth.
A second MOU commits Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), HD KSOE, and HD Hyundai Samho to jointly design and manufacture next-generation conventional and autonomous maritime cranes for Indian ports, in line with India’s ₹90,000 crore port modernisation plans.
The partnership also opens India’s growing port infrastructure to Korean developers. A separate MOU between the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) and South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries enables Korean companies to bid on India’s $13.3 billion port PPP pipeline over the next five years, including the massive Vadhvan container port in Maharashtra and the 150MTPA multipurpose terminal in Bahuda, Odisha.
With over 3.2 lakh seafarers, India is one of the top three global suppliers of trained maritime labour. The Centre invited Korean shipowners to recruit from this pool for Korean-flag operations and to register vessels on India’s E-Samudra and GIFT IFSCA platforms.
