Regional Competition and Cooperation in Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean, the third largest body of water on earth, has been an area of competition between India and China as well as other powers.

Importance of Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean provides critical sea trade routes that connect the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia with the broader Asian continent to the east and Europe to the west. A number of the world’s most important strategic chokepoints, including the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca through which 32.2 millions of barrels of crude oil and petroleum are transported per day—more than 50 percent of the world’s maritime oil trade—are found in the Indian Ocean Region, which itself is believed to be rich with energy reserves. Nearly 40 percent (PDF) of the world’s offshore petroleum is produced in the Indian Ocean, coastal beach sands and offshore waters host heavy mineral deposits, and fisheries are increasingly important for both exports and domestic consumption.

Why is the Indian Ocean a source of competition?

China and India are dependent on energy resources transported via the secure sea lanes in the Indian Ocean to fuel their economies. India imports nearly 80 percent of its energy, mostly oil from the Middle East, and is due to overtake Japan as the world’s third largest energy consumer (behind China and the United States). Further, more than 80% percent of China’s imported energy resources passed through Strait of Malacca from the Indian Ocean. As Beijing and New Delhi press to maintain economic growth, their dependency on the safe transport of resources will likely intensify. China’s growing global influence and India’s rapid economic rise have heightened the ocean’s strategic value. Further, United States’s rebalance to Asia {shifting from a foreign policy dominated by the Middle East to one more centered on Asia} has also been a contributing factor elevating concern over Indian Ocean security. Diverse security challenges affect the region ranging from natural disasters to concerns over energy security, piracy, and military posturing.

How are China and India competing in the Indian Ocean?

Both India and China have developed initiatives to bolster infrastructure and other connections in the region. The competition between India and China is not overt though each of them is seeking to strengthen its ties with smaller regional states to secure their respective security and economic interests.

China’s regional vision, backed by $40 billion of pledged investment is focussed around One Belt One Road plan that seeks to combine the revitalization of ancient land based trade routes, the Silk Road Economic Belt with a Maritime Silk Road. In recent years, China’s ties with regional countries have deepened including influx of Chinese capital into construction / infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.  Since 2009, when China launched counterpiracy operations in Indian Ocean, Beijing has become more and more active in Indian Ocean region.

India on the other hand has tried to foster its stronger diplomatic, economic and security ties with IOR maritime states as a mean to strengthen the economy of India; and to establish it as driver of regional growth and also counter China’s growing clout.

String of Pearls

China’s ambitions in the Indian Ocean Region have been described as “string of pearls” metaphor by many.  While so far China has not established any military facility in any of these countries, it has taken up commercial ports and other related projects in most of the countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan etc. Many of these will be owned and operated by Chinese companies. The threat perceived in India is that some of them could be used in the future for military and espionage purposes; and they can hurt India economically as well. However, China dismisses these claims and say that Beijing seeks access, not bases, for economic gains.

India’s response to String of Pearls

The maritime competition between China and India at this stage is nascent and has been overblown. Nevertheless, India has been conscious of the threat posed by this metaphor and has tried to maintain friendly relations with the countries in Indian Ocean periphery. India is also trying to make robust blue water navy. Further, India has also forged relations with China’s neighbours particularly Japan and Vietnam to cooperate them.

Other countries have strategic interests in the IOR

The countries such as Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, all of them are recipients of both Chinese and Indian aid and investment, primarily for their infrastructure development. Most of their foreign policy ties are determined by what deals can help to achieve their own development goals. Further, the global powers from outside the region have also taken interest in maintaining the ocean’s security. While United States maintains a Naval Support facility Diego Garcia, France maintains a presence from Reunion.

Mutual Transnational Cooperation

Despite rise in competition, the Indian Ocean region has seen multilateral cooperation involving India, China as well as other countries to handle the issues like piracy, disaster relief, drug smuggling, prevention of terrorism etc. The success of counterpiracy near Gulf of Aden has been mainly because of regional cooperation. In 2009, more than 80 entities including nations, organizations, industry groups created a Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) to end the Somali piracy and robbery at sea. Since the military action began, the volume of attacks gone down drastically.

Another example of regional cooperation is the search and rescue effort for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which had disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. At least 26 countries including China and India contributed to the search mission.

Further, after 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, governments of India, China, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, UK, United States, etc. participated in extensive relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Multilateral Mechanisms

The Indian Ocean rim countries have established few multilateral maritime mechanisms to address non‐traditional security threats and challenges confronting. The most prominent among these is the Indian Ocean Rim‐Association of Regional Cooperation (IOR‐ARC), now called Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). This is the only pan Indian Ocean economic grouping and has started addressing the maritime security also in recent times.

Further, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), has emerged recently as a 35‐member Indian Ocean security apparatus which facilitates exchange of views among the naval professionals to evolve common understanding of maritime security issues in the region. Similarly, Milan Exercise is a gathering of navies from India’s extended neighbourhood of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand that aims to develop cooperative mechanisms. In 2014 Milan, 17 navies participated including two from Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), three Indian Ocean island nations (Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles) and the navies of Philippines and Cambodia made their debut.