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Political rhetoric on India's leadership in the Indian Ocean isn't matched by the facts on the ground.

The Western Indian Ocean connects North America, Europe and Asia, and as such is of global strategic importance. Its rich natural resource profile has pushed global players, including India, to view the region with increasing interest in recent years. Although for a long time, much of India’s political attention was directed towards its eastern neighbourhood, in recent years, the country has begun giving more attention to maritime security in i

China and India compete for influence, nation by nation, throughout the Indian Ocean region

The Western Indian Ocean Region (WIOR) is linked to India in several ways, yet it remains conspicuous in its absence from India’s foreign policy discourse. This lack of attention is now beginning to reverse as external players stake their geopolitical claims in the region. India has responded by reorienting its own nautical outlook towards WIOR and building friendly relationships with African countries that straddle the region. This bri

In countering India’s efforts to dominate South Asian waters, China may be seeking a grand bargain: allow each side control over their respective littorals – the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea – and the maintenance of respective constabulary presences

Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar paid recent visits to the Maldives and Mauritius.

In recent years, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO) region have emerged as vital security and developmental partners in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)—thereby gaining prominence in India’s foreign policy priorities. This paper examines India’s bilateral and multilateral engagement with the SIDS of the SWIO region, and argues that India should consider the concerns of the

The Indian Ocean has seen a steady increase in the size and number of Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) or mega-ships equal to or in excess of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) from 2014 onwards. This has created economic and infrastructural pressures on Indian Ocean littorals. With mega-ships growing on the Asia-Europe route, the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) will need to create flexibility in landside maritime infrastructure and hin

The Indian Ocean region is yet again witnessing another phase of strategic rivalries, with global powers including the US, China and India competing to create their own zones of power. The Indian Ocean has historical signicance as a key corridor for both trade and energy resources from the oil-rich Middle East to the big economies of East Asia. The nature of challenges facing the region are evolving. Economically, the Indian Ocean has become more

Mauritian Prime Minister Ramgoolam has shown remarkable diplomatic deftness in balancing India and China. The invite to Modi shows India’s importance to his vision for Mauritius.

India’s recent outreach to Sri Lanka and Mauritius suggest a renewed focus on the Indian Ocean region.

Blue Economy is fast becoming an area of huge interest for African policymakers. Has the rhetoric translated to concrete developmental outcomes? This brief examines the question of how the concept of ‘Blue economy’ should be operationalised nationally and regionally in Africa. It highlights strategic entry points that should be driven by both public and private sectors and supported by South-South cooperation: the development of ports, promot

India’s growing security co-operation with Mauritius will contribute towards a ‘free and open’ western Indian region.

As competition intensifies in the Indian Ocean Region, India loses touch with Sri Lanka and solidifies relations with the Maldives.

This Paper analyses South Africa's position as a member of both BRICS and IBSA, especially the broader strategic implications arising out of its membership of the two organisations.

South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy, released in December 2022, highlights the country’s willingness to engage with the Indo-Pacific concept, shedding the ambiguity of the earlier stance under President Yoon Suk Yeol’s predecessor. This policy step up recognises emerging geopolitical trends that require South Korea to engage with new territories previously overlooked in its strategic radar, such as the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This brief

At the Galle Dialogue 2016, Sri Lanka sought not only to stress its critical geographical location at the crossroads of important Indian Ocean sea lines of communication, but also to display a catalytic ability to spur regional collaboration in securing the vulnerable commons.

Given India's high stakes in the Indian Ocean, it is important for it to ponder the possibility of using both soft and hard power resources to create dependencies for the other countries, and the same time, seek possibilities to engage with China.

Located at the centre of the Indian Ocean, the Chagos Archipelago is a group of 55 tiny islands that, since 1965, has been administered by the United Kingdom as a British Indian Ocean Territory. Its biggest island, Diego Garcia, is host to a highly important US military air base. Sovereignty over the archipelago has recently emerged as an issue of contestation between Mauritius and the UK, and the presence of American military troops has only ser

New Delhi’s record on this score is more mixed than some of the headlines seem to suggest.

The Indian Ocean, a vast maritime expanse, features diverse social, spatial, and topographical characteristics. This diversity is evident in the various actors operating independently, with minimal synergy, political unity, and distinct challenges, across its sub-regions. In this context, what does the maritime security architecture in the region look like? This brief finds that it remains fragmented, and makes a case for nurturing its cohesivene

The upcoming “global deployment” is intended to reinforce the U.K.’s tilt toward the Indo-Pacific region.

By ratcheting up tension, China is causing alarm in other countries that use the busy South China Sea as the shortest and most convenient link between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Chinese could well end up the losers as the countries affected could band together to offset Chinese aggressiveness. Worse, it could well trigger off Japanese nationalism and rearmament.

The trilateral maritime cooperation initiative by India, Maldives and Sri Lanka, and the Outcome Document signed recently by the NSAs of the three countries, has the potential for further improving naval ties in the shared Indian Ocean Neighbourhood.

India and the European Union (EU) share a deep political and strategic relationship that pivots around democracy, global rule of law, security, and trade. While the depth is obvious on paper, however, the partnership has delivered short on dividends expected by both sides. Yet diplomatic engagement remains robust, and in recent times is moving towards greater mutual understanding of the challenges of terrorism and the potential counterterrorism s

Manoj Joshi, “A Survey of India-US Defence Cooperation,” ORF Special Report No. 224, March 2024, Observer Research Foundation.

With tensions between an aggressive China and an emerging India intensifying, there will be significant changes and challenges in the Indian Ocean and South Asian regions

Naval diplomacy has emerged as a pillar of India’s external engagements. While conventionally regarded as a military arm, the navy is increasingly assuming a greater role as a diplomatic actor. This brief underlines three trends in India’s naval diplomacy in the Indian Ocean, shaped by its broader political outlook in the region. First, there has been a normative shift in how India views the role of the navy. Second, India’s bilateral engag

During the UPA years, Delhi often proclaimed itself as a "net security provider" in the Indian Ocean and beyond. Modi has certainly put security cooperation at the very heart of his regional diplomacy. But the institutional framework in Delhi for such cooperation remains to be developed.

Any future limited conflict between India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will primarily be fought in a high-altitude environment along parts of the 4,000-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC). With the Indian Army likely to be constrained by the terrain and numerical parity to fight a largely positional battle with limited mobility and offensive options, air power offers several asymmetric opportunities to create operational advantages

Real impetus for India's expansion of its second-strike capability is, in fact, the significant growth of the Pakistani and Chinese navies in the Indian Ocean.

Despite their growing usage in armed conflict, artificially intelligent unmanned combat systems raise questions of law, ethics and accountability

The Maldives and Sri Lanka show how they can bargain with bigger powers to their advantage.

While it cannot match the Indian Navy’s strength, the Pakistan Navy’s focus on asymmetric capabilities & growing synergy with the PLAN pose a significant challenge for New Delhi.

New Delhi and Canberra have had to bear the brunt of increasingly belligerent Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific, pushing their bilateral relationship to new heights.