China-India Maritime Cooperation In The Indian Ocean Region

After entering the 21st century,the Indian Ocean plays an increasingly important role in the world’s geopolitical structure.As China and India are rapidly emerging as maritime powers,the Indian Ocean occupies a prominent position in the respective maritime strategies of China and India,and the maritime interests and maritime power of the two countries continue to extend to the Indian Ocean,the interaction between China and India in the Indian Ocean region has become more and more frequent,and the competing and cooperating relationship between China and India in the Indian Ocean region has attracted extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad.As maritime cooperation is the trend of development in today’s world and in line with the general trend of opening-up and cooperation in the world,it is of great value to explore China-India maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region for the building of a closer partnership between China and India.In view of this,based on the existing theoretical analysis framework of cooperation,this paper takes the three variables of common interests,threat perceptions and international mechanisms as the core to construct a theoretical analysis framework of China-India maritime cooperation,and analyzes its impact on Sino-Indian maritime cooperation,so as to judge the overall level of Sino-Indian maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.China and India have both common and conflicting interests in the Indian Ocean region.China and India have reached a certain consensus on maintaining the security of sea lanes,preventing non-traditional security threats and promoting the development of maritime scientific research and environmental protection,laying the foundation for China-India cooperation in these areas.However,this relatively limited common interest has to some extent limited Sino-Indian maritime cooperation to low-sensitivity areas,and Sino-Indian cooperation in maritime economy,maritime connectivity and traditional maritime security is lacking.Considering India’s own negative perceptions of China,India’s concerns about China’s increased maritime projection capabilities and China’s strategic intentions in the Indian Ocean,and India’s obvious strategic intent to develop its maritime forces and to counterbalance China,these have intensified the competition and conflict between China and India in the Indian Ocean region,and there is a strong threat perception between China and India.China-India maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region remains at the stage of policy coordination,with intermittent cooperation in some areas.Due to the inadequate development of bilateral maritime cooperation mechanism between China and India,the binding force for China-India maritime cooperation is limited and cannot meet the need for further development of China-India maritime cooperation,coupled with the problem-oriented multilateral maritime cooperation mechanism in the Indian Ocean,which is basically led by India and excludes China’s participation,it cannot provide a platform for information exchange and institutionalized guarantee for deepening China-India maritime cooperation.The maritime cooperation between China and India in the Indian Ocean region lacks a mature and perfect cooperation mechanism,the substantive content of maritime cooperation is limited,and the effective integration of cooperation in various fields of the ocean cannot be realized.From this point of view,in the Indian Ocean region,the overall level of China-India maritime cooperation is low,compared with the previous period,there is no breakthrough but rather into the trough,and the degree of maritime cooperation is not as good as the United States and India,Japan and India.In the future,China-India maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region will still face various challenges.China and India need to fully stimulate the potential of maritime cooperation and continuously promote the development of maritime cooperation.China should pay close attention to the potential risks and uncertainties in China-India maritime cooperation,while proactively carrying out maritime cooperation with India in a win-win attitude of cooperation.