Summary
- Over the last decade, China has gradually expanded its presence in the Indian Ocean, combining its military modernisation and cooperation with partners with active diplomacy towards the island and coastal states of the region.
- China’s presence and capabilities threaten the freedom and influence of other actors in the area, including India and the EU.
- Europe’s key maritime trade routes to Asia run through the Indian Ocean, making the security of the region and freedom of navigation crucial for European interests.
- Many of the island and coastal states in the Indian Ocean have limited economic resources to exercise effective control at sea and are therefore dependent on extra-regional powers.
- As part of their approach to respond to China’s growing assertiveness in the region, the EU and India should jointly establish a regional maritime capacity building programme for island and coastal states in the Indian Ocean.
Throughout the last century, China was primarily a land-based power. But in its 2015 white paper on military strategy, Beijing explicitly set out its goal of becoming “a maritime power” before beginning to modernise and expand the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The expansion of the PLAN from a coastguard into a so-called blue-water navy, which is capable of operating globally and across the deep waters of open oceans, laid the foundation for China to extend its overall presence in the Indo-Pacific. Since 2008, the PLAN has participated in anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia, deployed submarines and ships on a permanent basis to the Indian Ocean, and established strategic military bases in the region, for example, on the Coco Islands (Myanmar) and in Djibouti. In addition, China has secured the rights to use various ports in the Indian Ocean – part of the so-called string of pearls – which has allowed it to expand its military and commercial network.