The Indian Ocean has lately been witnessing a heightening sense of strategic rivalries, with major powers such as the US, China and India competing to create their own zones of power and inuence.¹ Various factors are driving these powers to seek greater role and inuence in the Indian Ocean. One of these factors is the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean, specically from the perspective of energy security. It is a fact that many Asian countries depend on oil imports from the Middle East. Almost 50 percent of the world's tankers and more than 80 percent of oil transportation from the Middle East to Northeast Asia pass through this region. is makes the security of these trade and energy corridors around the Strait of Hormuz, the Mozambique Channel and the Malacca Straits highly important to these countries. The protection of these corridors has translated into new emphasis on issues like sea lines of communication (SLOCs), maritime terrorism, and piracy. The Indian Ocean, moreover, is home to mostly unexplored, vast reserves of natural resources. ere is also the growing volume of undersea cables across the Indian Ocean region that forms a vital part of communication network linkages between Asia, Europe and America, the security of which is of utmost importance.

Even as this competition for energy, trade and resources picks up in the Indian Ocean, global power transition and the rise of Asia, in particular China, has had a more telling eect on the emerging security dynamics in the region. The rise of China, particularly of its military might, coupled with the relative decline of the US have created further complexities in the region.