Indian Ocean Archives | Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

Dealmaker in Paradise

By Sarah Watson | March 16, 2017 | Categories: Indian Ocean

A rumored Saudi Arabian plan to buy an atoll in the Maldives is unlikely to significantly alter the Indian Ocean security environment. The concern the plan has provoked, however, is a sign of how sensitive regional governments have become to any developments that appear to threaten the region’s fragile order.

India Needs More Than Cautious Statements on the South China Sea

By Sarah Watson | December 6, 2016 | Categories: Arbitration, India, Indian Ocean

China’s actions since the South China Sea arbitration ruling show that India needs to take a stronger line if it wants to achieve its objectives. Given the importance of the principles at stake, it would be in India’s best interests to take a more forward-looking and forward-leaning approach to the South China Sea dispute.

India’s “Undersea Wall” in the Eastern Indian Ocean

By Abhijit Singh | June 15, 2016 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean

Surveillance technology could be leveraged to protect India’s exclusive economic zone

Colombo Port City and the Limits of India’s Regional Diplomacy

By Sarah Watson | April 11, 2016 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka

The restart of construction raises alarm in India that the project will give China increased influence in the Indian Ocean.

Will India Truly Start “Acting East” in Andaman and Nicobar?

By Sarah Watson | November 16, 2015 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean, Indo-Pacific Region

This September, while Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met with tech titans in Silicon Valley, his administration quietly unveiled a $1.5 billion development package for the isolated Andaman and Nicobar island chains, meant to turn the islands’ capital city, Port Blair, into a hub of the ship repair industry by developing port infrastructure. Less than […]

The Bangladesh/Myanmar Maritime Dispute: Lessons for Peaceful Resolution

By Sarah Watson | October 19, 2015 | Categories: Indian Ocean

The March 2012 decision of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in the long-standing Bangladesh/Myanmar maritime border dispute opened up new possibilities for peaceful resolution of such disputes in Asia. While the judgment itself broke important—if technical—legal ground, the two parties’ incentives for entering into litigation in the first place offer […]

An Interview with Vice Admiral Vijay Shankar

By Gregory Poling | October 19, 2015 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean, Indo-Pacific Region

AMTI Director Greg B. Poling interviews Vice Admiral (ret.) Vijay Shankar of the Indian Navy.

Stirred but Not Shaken: Sri Lanka’s Rebalancing Act

By Sameer Lalwani | June 18, 2015 | Categories: Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka

Shortly after President Maithripala Sirisena’s surprise victory in Sri Lanka’s January Presidential election, the new leader suspended one of the largest Chinese-led infrastructure investments in the country—the $1.5 billion Colombo Port City—and caught the Chinese government off guard. Seemingly in denial, Chinese officials and the media echo chamber downplayed this move as a minor speed […]

Dragon Tracks: Emerging Chinese Access Points in the Indian Ocean Region

By Andrew S. Erickson and Gabriel Collins | June 18, 2015 | Categories: China, Indian Ocean

With six-plus-years of Chinese Gulf of Aden anti-piracy operations and China’s first submarine deployments to the Indian Ocean, considering possible support facilities for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) isn’t just for those theorizing a “String of Pearls” anymore. The U.S. Department of Defense itself forecasts that within the […]

Views from India’s Smaller Maritime Neighbors

By Nilanthi Samaranayake | June 18, 2015 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean

India’s smaller maritime neighbors are paying close attention as New Delhi consolidates the country’s ambitions in the Indian Ocean. While bolstering its own naval and maritime capabilities, India has actively taken steps to cement partnerships with most of these smaller neighbors in recent years and continues to do so under the Narendra Modi administration. On […]

India’s Maritime Acts in the East

By Scott Cheney-Peters | June 18, 2015 | Categories: India, Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia

Since the middle of May, four vessels of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet, including some of its most advanced indigenous ships, have plied the waters of Southeast Asia and Australia, conducting exercises with partners and making port calls in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia. Some, not least the Indian government, have held up […]

Modi and the Indian Ocean: Restoring India’s Sphere of Influence

By C. Raja Mohan | June 18, 2015 | Categories: China, India, Indian Ocean

On a March 2015 trip to Seychelles and Mauritius, Narendra Modi outlined a bold framework that overturned the political approach that India had taken towards the Indian Ocean for half a century. Beginning in the late 1960s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked all major powers to withdraw from the Indian Ocean out of concern for […]