India as an Indian Ocean Power

Abstract

India’s naval build-up provoked considerable speculation both within the nation and in the wider region. Some non-Indian commentators believed that India was seeking a power projection capability rather than establishing a defensive posture. This interpretation also gained currency in the context of the diminution of the superpower presence in the Indian Ocean region, a phenomenon that left the role of large regional navies such as India’s more exposed to view. It is claimed that continued superpower withdrawal would, ‘in extremis, [lead to] a Southeast Asia dominated militarily by China to the East and India to the west’.1