China-India rivalry in the Indian Ocean

Smaller countries in the region play a vital role in determining the extent of their domination.

Several developments in the recent past in the western Indian Ocean indicate how the states of the region are reasserting the domination of their strategic space as the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean intensifies. As the news of India replacing its defence personnel with civilian technical staff to operate the Dornier aircraft and two helicopters that India has gifted to the Maldives came in, there were reports that on March 4, the Maldives and China signed a defence agreement. Prior to this, on March 2, India inaugurated its second full-fledged naval base, INS Jatayu on Lakshadweep's Minicoy island, upgrading what was earlier a naval detachment. This base is 130 kilometres from the Maldives and will give India a vantage point to monitor the waters off the East Coast of Africa .