Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to participate today in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders’ summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in Delaware. The meeting of the four major maritime powers in the Indo-Pacific region — the US, Australia, Japan and India — is taking place against the backdrop of China’s assertive behavior in the South China Sea, its saber rattling in the Taiwan Strait, and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian oceans, which pose a serious challenge to freedom of navigation.
India has been bearing the brunt of Chinese belligerence not only on its land border, but also its oceanic frontier. Surrounded on three sides by sea, India is primarily a maritime nation. To the east, the Bay of Bengal washes along its shores, while on the west it is the Arabian Sea and in the south it is the Indian Ocean seamlessly connected with the Pacific.
India sits astride a very large number of busy international shipping lanes that crisscross the Indian Ocean. More than 90 percent of India’s trade by volume and 70 percent by value is transported by sea. India views the 21st century as the “century of the seas,” with maritime trade serving as a key enabler of its global resurgence.
While the coalition of democracies has been cooperating to face China’s belligerence in the Pacific, the US renamed the Pacific Command to the Indo-Pacific Command in 2018 in recognition of the strategic significance of India and the Indian Ocean. Earlier in 2007, then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, speaking before the Indian parliament, articulated the concept of “confluence of the seas,” saying that the Pacific and Indian oceans were bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and prosperity.
A broader Asia that broke away from its geographical boundaries was beginning to take on a distinctive form for India and Japan, he added.
Although India’s biggest concerns and challenges to its security and territorial integrity emanate through its land border to the north, China has also firmed up its footprint in the Indian Ocean, including in Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Gwadar Port in Pakistan, the Coco Islands in Myanmar, Chittagong Port in Bangladesh and in the Maldives, much to the chagrin of India. This has led to the coinage of the term “String of Pearls.” Apart from the South China Sea, China has also enhanced its footprint in the western Pacific, including in the Solomon Islands, with which it signed a security pact in 2022.
India has major strategic interests as well as economic and commercial stakes in continued peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. India’s view is that all nations must exercise restraint and resolve bilateral issues diplomatically and without recourse to the use or threat of use of force. India supports freedom of navigation in international waters and believes that the current regional security landscape calls for a cooperative and inclusive approach.
For its part, under the “Act East” policy which places renewed emphasis on engagement with the Indo-Pacific region, India has been an active participant in various bilateral and multilateral security forums such as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus and the ASEAN Regional Forum. India has urged stakeholders to comply with the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s July 2016 ruling in favor of the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China.
Pursuant to its “Act East” policy, India has been conducting naval exercises with the US near the Malabar Coast since 1992. Later, Japan and Australia began participating in these annual exercises to facilitate interoperability. In addition, India has undertaken bilateral naval exercises with most of the ASEAN nations, including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
The engagement of India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh in hydrocarbon exploration in the South China Sea has commercial and strategic traction. India and Vietnam have renewed their oil exploration contract in the South China Sea. India has also extended a US$100 billion line of credit to Vietnam for procuring high-speed gunboats for its coastal defense. In a significant development, India and Philippines recently signed an agreement to buy BrahMos missiles from India. India also participates in Rim of the Pacific, the world’s largest maritime warfare exercise.
The Taiwan Strait connects the South China Sea to the East China Sea in the northeast, and so resonates palpably in the Indo-Pacific scene. All nations in the Indo-Pacific region, including India, have stakes in the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, and also in the preservation and promotion of democracy in Taiwan. India has urged restraint and avoidance of unilateral action to change the “status quo” in the region, including the militarization of the Taiwan Strait.
Rup Narayan Das is a Delhi-based China academic and was a Taiwan Fellow in 2022. The views expressed here are personal.
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