"Not that we expect to be in those waters [South China Sea] very frequently, but when the requirement is there for situations where the country's interests are involved … We will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Indian navy chief Admiral D K Joshi said last month.
Notwithstanding India's evolving and complex bilateral relations with China, and its usual reticence in confronting its Asian rival, Joshi's statement could represent a watershed moment in
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defining New Delhi's future position towards China's rising assertiveness in the South China Sea and signal a more ambitious Indian naval vision.
After decades of low-profile diplomacy in the Pacific, where it has been constantly overshadowed by the likes of the United States, Australia, China, and Japan, an increasingly confident India is gradually stepping up its engagement with the wider region and flexing its increasingly robust naval muscle in the process.
India's booming trade with Southeast Asian countries, paved by New Delhi's "Look East" policy towards the region in response to a period of fast economic growth in the 1990s, has given a refurbished Indian Navy more reasons to develop an expeditionary outlook and transcend its traditional areas of operation, principally in the Indian Ocean.
Against the backdrop of rising rivalry between the US and China, and Japan's resurgent foreign policy under a more hawkish new leadership, India's entry into the South China Sea drama promises to transform the Pacific theater into a truly multi-polar strategic battle for power and influence.
defining New Delhi's future position towards China's rising assertiveness in the South China Sea and signal a more ambitious Indian naval vision.
After decades of low-profile diplomacy in the Pacific, where it has been constantly overshadowed by the likes of the United States, Australia, China, and Japan, an increasingly confident India is gradually stepping up its engagement with the wider region and flexing its increasingly robust naval muscle in the process.
India's booming trade with Southeast Asian countries, paved by New Delhi's "Look East" policy towards the region in response to a period of fast economic growth in the 1990s, has given a refurbished Indian Navy more reasons to develop an expeditionary outlook and transcend its traditional areas of operation, principally in the Indian Ocean.
Against the backdrop of rising rivalry between the US and China, and Japan's resurgent foreign policy under a more hawkish new leadership, India's entry into the South China Sea drama promises to transform the Pacific theater into a truly multi-polar strategic battle for power and influence.
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