Abstract: 
This essay posits that India’s security role in the Asia Pacific is animated by its concerns over rising threats to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea-particularly the possibility that aggressive Chinese patrolling in the region may affect the flow of global trade. But India also believes that China’s maritime maneuvers in Southeast Asia are motivated by a desire to eventually challenge India in its strategic backyard-the Indian Ocean-prompting New Delhi to take urgent steps to shore up Indian naval presence in the Indian Ocean region (IOR).
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