India's clever alliances with island states
A multifaceted outreach with Indian Ocean neighbours provides useful lessons in navigating China’s dominance.
By Ian Hall.
As India struggles to manage China’s economic and diplomatic influence in its immediate neighbourhood, it has recently made progress in building more robust ties with four crucial island states in the Indian Ocean: Mauritius, the Maldives, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka. What has been done – and what has worked – may well bear on Australia’s “step up” in the Pacific.
The National Security College, with the support of the Department of Defence, is leading a two-year research project on operationalising Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy in the Indian Ocean. Third in a series of publications, Professor Ian Hall explores three dimansional approach to India’s pursuit for security and growth in the region.
This publication origianlly appeared in the Interpreter.
Ian Hall is a Professor in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University and the Deputy Director (Research) of the Griffith Asia Institute. He is also the co-editor (with Sara E Davies) of the Australian Journal of International Affairs and an Academic Fellow of the Australia India Institute. His most recent book is Modi and the Reinvention of Indian Foreign Policy (Bristol University Press, 2019).