Abstract
Abstract
Maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) has become a shared concern for the European Union (EU) and India, yet sustained co-presence and overlapping security challenges have not translated into deeper institutional convergence. Drawing on institutional choice theory, this article examines how and why the EU and India select different institutional formats for multilateral maritime security cooperation. Employing an analytical framework that distinguishes between formal intergovernmental organisations, informal intergovernmental organisations, trans-governmental networks, and ad hoc coalitions, the study combines semi-structured interviews with EU and Indian officials and document analysis. The findings show that while both actors operate across the formal–informal spectrum, their institutional choices are shaped by distinct cost sensitivities and strategic priorities: the EU remains anchored in treaty-based multilateralism while pragmatically complementing it with informal mechanisms, whereas India relies more heavily on initiator-driven and sovereignty-preserving informal arrangements. These patterns help explain why institutional choices in the WIO have produced parallel institutional pathways rather than convergence, with implications for debates on institutional choice, informal governance, and the constraints on multilateral security cooperation.