Opinion

Can China and India give small Indian Ocean region nations what they really need?

The recent election of Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has injected new impetus into India and China’s focus on Indian Ocean states

However, the real challenge for major powers will be dealing with exigencies, such as rising sea levels, that go beyond hard security issues

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Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar is director of the Society for Policy Studies (SPS), an independent think tank based in New Delhi.

Published: 5:30am, 23 Dec 2023

The Indian Ocean has been receiving considerable attention recently, with a conclave of naval chiefs of littoral nations meeting in Bangkok under the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium banner. The symposium is an Indian initiative begun in 2008 and seeks to further maritime cooperation among the regional navies of the Indian Ocean.

Earlier, China convened a maritime conference in Kunming to enhance blue-economy cooperation with select Indian Ocean nations under the theme of “Boosting Sustainable Blue Economy to Build Together a Maritime Community with a Shared Future”. Organised by China’s International Development Cooperation Agency, the geopolitical subtext of the conference was visible in different ways.

The Indian Ocean region was referred to as the “China-Indian Ocean Region”, perhaps to avoid identifying the ocean with India. Furthermore, India was not among the invited nations. This is indicative of the brittleness of the relationship between the two Asian giants.