Rivalry between America and China has spread to the Indian Ocean, Economist, Apr. 10, 2023.

The world’s most powerful navies are swarming to a long-neglected maritime region

A “free and open Indo-Pacific”, intended to encompass both the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, is the hottest geopolitical slogan. When strategists talk about the Indo-Pacific, however, they often mean just the Pacific, and then only the far-western part, around the South China Sea and the East China Sea. It is there that a struggle for primacy is at its fiercest between America, dominant since the second world war, and a resurgent China. Yet the Indian Ocean, relatively neglected until recently, is now having a moment.

The economic dynamism of its rim and great importance of the ocean as a hub for trade in goods and energy have long been recognised. Now its strategic significance is catching up. No single power holds sway in this ocean, and perhaps never will. Yet China is making inroads into its waters and other navies also jostle there for influence. A new oceanic era shaped by great-power rivalry has begun. Smaller Indian Ocean countries wonder whether they will be victims of it, or beneficiaries.
(To be continued )

Rivalry between America and China has spread to the Indian Ocean