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Sri Lanka Navy Journal 63

Freedom to use the seas and good order at sea is the vital component of
India’s maritime thinking. However, in an ideal scenario for Indians, the freedom
to use the seas in the Indian Ocean would apply exclusively to India. The
maritime domain surrounding India raises the question of whether it aspires to
possess maximum ‘Sea control’ capabilities in regard to the entire Indian Ocean
or rather ‘Sea denial’ capabilities. While sea control is a prerequisite in dictating
the terms of a naval engagement in a particular maritime space, sea denial has
limited application and is meant to deny a stronger adversary use of maritime
space.
An important step towards strengthening India’s role in the Indian Ocean
was the establishment of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) in
2008. The IONS is officially an initiative that seeks to increase maritime
co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region by
providing an open and inclusive forum for discussion of regionally relevant
maritime issues. However, due to the fact that India strictly distinguishes
between ‘regional’ and ‘extra-regional’ states, neither the US nor China has been
invited to become members of the symposium, despite their interests in the
region. Further, India’s objectives in the Indian Ocean are undoubtedly driven
in part by its concern over the increasing Chinese presence in the region. The
String of Pearls raises fears about a potential Chinese ‘containment’ of India and
the prospect that Beijing may seek to occupy the same role in the Indian Ocean
as it does in the South and East China Seas.

India’s primary objective in the Indian Ocean is to be the dominant power and
security provider, yet its capabilities and real determination lag far behind this
goal. The contest between these objectives and China’s interest is indisputably
shaping the current and future security environment in the Indian Ocean, but
the role of the US in the region is not negligible, and with a slightly different
approach to the disputed issues and challenges, the US could ensure that the
interaction between India and China does not grow out of proportion.
Role of the US

The US has been the dominant power in the Indian Ocean and the protector
of SLOCs since the United Kingdom announced its withdrawal ‘East of Suez’
in the late 1960s. During the Cold War, the primary interest of the US was to
curtail the USSR influence in the region and protect oil transportation from the
Middle East. In the early 1970s, the US commenced the construction of a naval
facility at Diego Garcia, an atoll leased from the British which was strategically
located in the centre of the Indian Ocean. With the end of the Cold War, the US
became the uncontested guarantor of free passage and good order at sea in the
Indian Ocean, extensively using Diego Garcia as a naval support facility during
its interventions in the Middle East.

As the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific are much interconnected, and
most ships passing through the Pacific also have to make their way through