Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation tour, which ended last Sunday, has inevitably been interpreted through the prism of strategic competition with China by many observers. That reading is certainly prescient to an extent, but there is more beyond the China calculus.

It is also about the need to draw friends closer in an uncertain world, where US power is gradually declining and “Middle Powers” need to combine to secure their resources and supply chains. Reducing the visit to another chapter in Sino-Indian rivalry in the Indo-Pacific diminishes its larger significance.

Beyond The China Calculus

The tour, particularly the visits to Indonesia and Australia, and the visit by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi just days before the Indian Prime Minister embarked on his eastern sojourn, possibly reflect India’s attempt to redesign its strategic play for an era in which economic security, technological capability and maritime power have become inseparable.

The Indo-Pacific is no longer simply a theatre of naval deployments or diplomatic summits, where the world’s largest superpower underwrites security; it has become the principal arena where the future distribution of economic and military power will be decided.

India, whose ambitions extend from becoming a manufacturing hub to a leading artificial intelligence economy, needs access to secure supply chains and trusted strategic partners who can help it keep sea lanes and choke points free of conflict or threats.

India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have the strategic advantage of controlling the narrow Strait of Malacca, through which 70 per cent of Asia’s energy supplies and a quarter of global trade flow. Of all the nations in the vicinity, the largest navies are Indian, Indonesian and Australian.

Here again, China is the context for the new arc of maritime cooperation rather than the explicit subject. Beijing’s rapidly expanding naval capabilities,........

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