Posts
By Webmaster COI 2013 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25860275GROWING SALIENCE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN COMMISSION:WHAT HAS CHANGED FOR INDIA AS AN OBSERVER
Introduction
The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is a regional forum in the Southwest Indian Ocean, comprising five nations – Comoros, France (Reunion), Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles. It is the only African organisation…

INDIA AS A CHALLENGE TO CHINA'S BRI
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, comprising both the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt (launched in August 2013) and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (introduced…

POLITICAL CRISIS IN SRI LANKA: CHINA AND THE MARITIME DIMENSION
In late October 2018, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena set off a constitutional crisis by sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replacing him by Sirisena’s predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa. i With Sirisena later dissolving…

SHOULD INDIA BAIL OUT A DEBT-RIDDEN MALDIVES?
Maldives has borrowed heavily from China in the last five years putting it at serious risk of debt distress. Now Male has sought support from India to tide over its financial problems. The Foreign Minister of Maldives Abdulla Shahid along with…

AN OPENING FOR INDIA IN THE MALDIVES
The results of the Maldivian elections, held on 23rd September, have surprised many, particularly in India. The authoritarian tendencies of President Yameen and news emanating from Male thus far had suggested that the Maldivian strongman may…

RELEVANCE OF AIRCRAFT CARRIERS FOR INDIA: AN ASSESSMENT
Introduction
The epic sea battles between aircraft carriers never recurred after the Second World War. In the post-war period, most carriers began to retire without even having participated in battle. Many countries that possessed carriers…

THE FOCUS IS ON INDO-PACIFIC
In the taxonomy of ‘Geopolitics’ and ‘Geo-strategy’, the prefix ‘geo’ refers to a country’s strategic geography, which is the core underpinning of its national-strategy. Geopolitics involves the satiation of the country’s geo-economic…

LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS: FROM FRAGILITY TO STABILITY
With a total land area of just 32 km2, the Lakshadweep Islands, which lie off the west coast of India, are the smallest of the Union Territories (UT) under the Government of the India (GoI). And yet, they contribute something like 20,000 sq.km…
Image courtesy- Indian Navy Website https://indiannavy.nic.in/content/malabar-exercise-20REVISITNG ‘SAGAR’ – INDIA'S TEMPLATE FOR COOPERATION IN THE INDIAN OCEAN REGION
The month of March 2018 marks three years since the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first enunciated India’s vision for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) commonly known by its acronym - SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region). In…

INDIA AND MAURITIUS: COOPERATING TO ENSURE COLLECTIVE MARITIME SECURITY
On 16 August 2017, the Indian built Water Jet Fast Patrol Vessel ‘CGS Valiant’ was commissioned by the Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth at Port Louis Mauritius. This was the third ship supplied by an Indian Defence shipyard to…

BLUE ECONOMY: A CATALYST FOR INDIA'S ‘NEIGHBOURHOOD FIRST POLICY’
There is an emerging narrative which pushes a green agenda for India’s maritime outlook. Blue economy, an idea as conceived by Gunter Pauli, has already received recognition among the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) littoral states. Blue Economy…
Image Credits: QuartzTHE MARITIME DIMENSION IN SAARC: REDEFINING RELATIONS
Introduction
On 8 December 2016, the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the SAARC Secretariat, SAARC regional institutions and the academia observed the 32nd SAARC Charter Day. 1 It was on this…
