India’s responses to US–China rivalry in the South China Sea

Abstract

This chapter analyses the drivers of India’s growing involvement in Southeast Asia and its emerging engagement in the South China Sea dispute in the shadow of US–China rivalry. It traces the evolution of India’s deepening, multi-faceted relationships with East Asia, which have emerged as a result of the “Look East” and “Act East” policies and efforts on the part of states in that region to draw India into its institutional architecture and strategic dynamics. It observes the relatively recent emergence of India’s direct stake in sustaining maritime security and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, as well as commitments to uphold the so-called “rules-based order”. It argues that since the early 1990s India has acquired new interests in the prosperity, stability, and security of the region, as its economy has become more integrated with the ASEAN bloc, as its concerns about Chinese capabilities and intentions have intensified, and as its commitments to new strategic partners in East Asia, including Japan and the United States, have multiplied.