India Flexing Muscles in Indian ocean for New Naval Bases to Check China-Pakistan

India believes that the development of its maritime forces is essential for it to be accepted as a major regional power, with aspirations to become a world power. To give meaning to its ambitions, India is increasing its sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean and beyond for geo-strategic and commercial interests. In fact, India is allying with the US, Japan, Australia and other countries to achieve its objective of naval supremacy. In the past, preoccupation with its perceived land based threats from China and Pakistan, with whom India has fought a number of wars, India’s priority has been primarily to guard its land boundaries. Although India has a strong navy, it never ventured into the arena of becoming a naval power or a genuine blue water navy. With the advent of Narendra Modi’s government, maritime dominance has become the priority of the government in order to check the supposed Chinese aggressive policy in the IOR and in the South China Sea. India has a land frontier of 15,200 km but it also possesses a coastline 7,500 km long with over 1,200 islands and Exclusive Economic Zones of 2 million sq. km. Thus considering the huge coastline, possessing thousands of islands and facing increasing threat from the sea, India is gearing to become a naval power. India’s strategy to increase its maritime domain has both commercial as well as strategic aspects. India views the growing civil-military consensus on the importance of the sea for prosperity and security of India.