India has announced a multilateral maritime initiative to boost trade and expand the scope of the country's maritime trade activities.

According to the initiative plan, the launch of a new shipping carrier, Bharat Container Line, will help reduce India's dependence on foreign shipping carriers. A fleet of 100 vessels will travel through key trade routes described in reports released by the agency.

Meanwhile, the world's largest container carrier, MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Co.), currently operates nearly 900 vessels.

According to data compiled by Alphaliner, the national carrier Shipping Corp of India (SCI) operates only four container ships, including two owned and two chartered vessels. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the headquarters of shipping carrier CMA CGM in Marseilles along with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss logistics cooperation.

“With the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a visionary initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Marseille will play a strategic role as a major hub for India-Mediterranean trade,” Rodolphe Saade, president and chief executive of CMA CGM, said in a LinkedIn post. More than just infrastructure, IMEC aims to connect economies, promote sustainable growth and shape the future of global trade

India also announced a $3 billion Maritime Development Fund to expand its domestic shipbuilding and port infrastructure overseas. India's ambitions are compared to China's vast Belt and Road development in other countries.

India's plans have also become clearer amid China's increasingly tense relationship with the United States, its biggest trading partner.

SCI has agreed to cooperate strategically with one of India's largest downstream oil importers, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. is owned by the government. This is another factor worth noting in the maritime strategy of the country's government.

After the European Union banned crude imports from Russia, India became a key transit hub for diesel, aviation fuel and other products made from cheap Russian oil and sold to buyers in Europe. According to India's Ministry of Trade and Industry, Russia has replaced Iraq as India's largest supplier of crude oil.

Recent U.S. sanctions on 160 Russian tankers -- a “black fleet” of former ships with unclear owners, have sought to cut Russia off from the crude market, with some success. While some ships and cargo were detained, others made their way to ports in China and India, thanks to the disabling of satellite recognition equipment to conceal the location.