This edited book is the outcome of the International Conference on ‘China in Indian Ocean Region’, held on 13th–14th November 2014, organized by UGC Centre for Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad. Indian Ocean, third largest ocean in the world surpasses the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as the world’s largest and most strategically significant trade corridor. Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which is surrounded by Africa, Asia and Australia serves as a maritime highway, linking trans-continental human and economic relationships. Being the world’s most populated region, one third of the world’s bulk cargo and around two thirds of world’s oil ship tankers pass through it. China’s interest in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) can be traced back to the early 1960s. Ever since Beijing has been increasingly deepening its presence in the IOR for a variety of reasons—oil, trade, security, etc., over 30 per cent of China’s seaborne trade worth about US $300 billion transits across IOR. Sharing a quarter of the world’s population, China faces ever increasing demand for energy. China has little choice but to look beyond its borders for its energy needs. About 77 per cent of its oil imports are sourced from West Asia and Africa and these are transported through the Indian Ocean. Thus China’s dependence on the Indian Ocean continues to grow for energy imports from the Gulf, to import resources from Africa and trade with Europe. With China steadily spreading its footprints in the Indian Ocean Region with increasing military presence and with the rapidly growing Navy being equipped with warships, destroyers and nuclear submarines, this book analyses in depth growing Chinese influence in Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Geopolitical interests of China, Security and Economic implication for India. This volume will be of considerable interest to the students and scholars of international relations in the contemporary situation.

Contributed articles presented at the International Seminar on "China and the Indian Ocean Region" moderated by the National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi.

China and India are emerging as major maritime powers as part of long-term shifts in the regional balance of power. As their wealth, interests, and power grow, the two countries are increasingly bumping up against each other across the Indo-Pacific. China’s growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean is seen by many as challenging India’s aspirations towards regional leadership and major power status. How India and China get along in this shared maritime space—cooperation, coexistence, competition, or confrontation—will be one of the key strategic challenges for the entire region. India and China at Sea is an essential resource in understanding how the two countries will interact as major maritime powers in the coming decades. The essays in the volume, by noted strategic analysts from across the world, seek to better understand Indian and Chinese perspectives about their roles in the Indian Ocean and their evolving naval strategies towards each other.

The book focuses on analyzing the turbulent situation in the Indian Ocean from the political, economic and security perspectives. It discusses topics ranging from the major powers’ great game in the Indo-Pacific and China’s countermeasures, to China and India’s reciprocal demands and potential conflicts in the Indian Ocean. It also addresses the relations between the Indian Ocean region and China’s economic security and provides an in-depth analysis of the prospects of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

While the strategic dynamics in the IOR are complex and involve many powers there is little doubt that the “strategic triangle” involving the US, China and India is one of the key traditional security issues facing the IOR. Given Sri Lanka’s geopolitically significant location in the IOR this strategic triangle is bound to have an impact on its national interests and security. The central questions raised by this volume are the following: What are the prospects of competition and cooperation within the strategic triangle? What structure or pattern will the triangular relations assume? How can stability be maintained in the triangular relationship in the interest of peace in the IOR? and What would be the impact of this strategic triangle on a small country such as Sri Lanka situated in a geopolitically significant location in the IOR? The dynamics of the US-China-India strategic triangle in the IOR will be complicated, containing elements of both competition and cooperation. The research contained in the substantive chapters of this volume present a multiplicity of views on the possible patterns that the strategic triangle can assume. Based on Harry Harding’s typology of the strategic triangle in international affairs, these include: one mediating the conflict between the other two; two-against-one; and all-working-together. The multiplicity of patterns that the strategic triangle could assume indicate that there is likely to be considerable fluctuation in its structure. What is important in maintaining stability is that the competition is not allowed to become unmanageable, and the fostering of cooperation based on common interests. The US-China-India strategic triangle poses Sri Lanka as a country situated in a geopolitically significant location in the IOR with both challenges and opportunities. The most fundamental challenge is posed by the tendency of each of these three major powers to subordinate Sri Lanka to their grand strategic objectives and interaction with each other. The fundamental opportunity presented to Sri Lanka by the strategic triangle is that of using its geopolitical importance to each of these three major powers by virtue of its location in the IOR to its own advantage in a way that best serves its national interests.

This book focuses on assessing China’s international environment in the Indian Ocean including political, economic and secure environments through examining the characteristics of the international environment in the Indian Ocean. It figures out that there are four new changes and characteristics from the perspective of the current international environment in the Indian Ocean. Firstly, the turmoil in the security situation in the Indian Ocean has not been eased, but also showed signs of deterioration. Secondly, the strategic competition of the major powers in the Indian Ocean region has been exacerbated. Thirdly, the USA will remain the largest contributing variable in the international environment of the Indian Ocean in the future. Fourthly, India, a biggest country in the region, is becoming a major variable affecting the international environmental change in the Indian Ocean. This book also presents a picture of how the changes of great powers’ geo-strategic competition in the Indian Ocean affect the development of China’s BRI and believes that the Indian Ocean order will be gradually transforming from the American hegemony to the emergence of jointly governance including USA, China and India.

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is one of the most areas of the world in human terms. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the subregions and countries in the IOR, drawing heavily on a new country risk assessment model developed by Abdullah Toukan, a senior associate with the Burke Chair at CSIS. It provides detailed graphs, tables, and maps covering the IOR as a whole, each major subregion, and each of the thirty-two countries in the region as well as the impact of U.S. and Chinese military forces.