Indian Ocean Region

The Indo-Pacific construct has significantly enhanced the strategic salience of both India and Australia in a multipolar region. While the two nations have considerably deepened their strategic partnership, there is scope for much more improvement in several sectors.

• R.P. Singh
• February 23, 2022
• Issue Brief

By enabling access to logistics and support facilities at each other’s bases and ports, RELOS would enhance strategic cooperation between India and Russia, and promote their future manoeuvres in the Arctic and the Indian Ocean Region.

• Bipandeep Sharma
• January 17, 2022
• IDSA Comments

India–Russia cooperation in the Indian Ocean and the Arctic, including the Russian Far East, could give strong thrust to their deepening engagement. However, there is a need for heavy lifting from both sides to achieve the desired potential.

• Anurag Bisen
• December 06, 2021
• Policy Brief

As the bulk of India’s foreign trade transits through sea, it turns sea lines of communication through the Indian Ocean strategically important for India. The newly independent India did not pay adequate attention to this factor. Consequently, within two decades of independence continuous flow of unprotected large volume of India’s sea trade had become a strategic target for its adversaries. In this context, during the 1971 India–Pakistan war, India efficiently protected its vital sea lanes, ensuring that goods and commodities continued to reach Indian ports.

• Somita Chakraborty
• October–December 2021
• Journal of Defence Studies

India had all of two weeks to achieve the politico-military end state of liberating Bangladesh, before the international community intervened to impose a ceasefire. Speed and tempo of operations were imperative.Indian Armed Forces exploited the special operations capabilities to ensure an early fall of Dhaka. The airborne assault at Tangail, the audacious helilift of troops across the mighty Meghna by General Sagat Singh with effective support from the Mukti Bahini contributed to the early fall of Dhaka with most defences still intact.

• Vinod Bhatia
• October–December 2021
• Journal of Defence Studies

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is a prominent arena in international politics, in terms of trade, tourism, population, among other aspects. Several countries, some unconnected geographically, have shown interest in these waters. These entities offer financial, technical, infrastructural and capacity-building support, and security services to several IOR countries. India, the prominent resident power of this ocean, and others, consider this development unnecessary, uncalled for and unacceptable.

• Sainandan S. Iyer , Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay , Sridhar D. Iyer
• January 2021
• Strategic Analysis

A focused development plan for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which provide India with a commanding geostrategic presence in the Bay of Bengal and access to South and Southeast Asia, could greatly enhance the country’s geopolitical leverage in the Indian Ocean Region.

• Amb. Sujan R. Chinoy
• June 26, 2020
• Policy Brief

Long before the Atlantic and the Pacific became theatres for commerce and conflict, the Indian Ocean was home to considerable commercial and cultural intercourse. Most recent literature has, however, focused on maritime security and sea power while greater attention ought to be paid to economic development around the Indian Ocean. India’s plans for the development of the ‘Blue Economy’ augurs well for the region.

• Sanjaya Baru
• September 2019
• Strategic Analysis

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is now attaining centrestage in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. Apart from France and the US, China holds significant interests in the WIO. China’s interests with the WIO states could be divided in four categories: dual-use infrastructure building, politico-diplomatic focus, connectivity-access and military activities. All four are interconnected and facilitate China’s desire to project power. For China, activities in the WIO serve the purpose of ensuring energy supplies, maintaining economic growth and securing military interests.

• Sankalp Gurjar
• September 2019
• Strategic Analysis

This article seeks to capture the domestic debate in India over China’s activities in the Indian Ocean. It engages the critical geopolitical articulation around formal, practical and popular geopolitics, and provides a narrow perspective on the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). It begins with a look at how India and China perceive the IOR, which is crucial to understand how the Indian Ocean is framed in the public consciousness in India.

• Rajdeep Pakanati
• January-March 2019
• Journal of Defence Studies