Who keeps the Indian Ocean open?

Sample articleIllustrative text, not published research

Most of the oil that reaches East Asia, and a large share of India's own trade, crosses the Indian Ocean. The routes squeeze through a few narrow passages: the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the Strait of Malacca. Whoever can watch those passages, or close them, holds leverage over everyone who depends on them.

Ports as footholds

Over the past two decades the ocean's rim has filled with new and expanded ports. Some were built on loans that later proved hard to repay. In 2017 Sri Lanka leased the port at Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company for 99 years, and the deal became shorthand, fairly or not, for the risks of borrowing to build. Gwadar in Pakistan, Chabahar in Iran and Djibouti on the Red Sea each sit near a chokepoint, and each carries a different mix of trade and strategy.

“A port is a commercial asset until the day someone needs it for something else.”

Who patrols

Navies are the other half of the picture. India's navy treats the ocean as home water and runs regular patrols and exercises with partners. China has kept warships in the western Indian Ocean since its anti-piracy patrols off Somalia began in 2008, and opened its first overseas base, in Djibouti, in 2017. The United States, France and others keep bases of their own.

What it means for the south coast

Kanyakumari sits close to the main east–west shipping lane that runs south of Sri Lanka. The traffic on that lane, the ports competing for it and the patrols watching it shape fishing grounds, port plans and jobs along the southern coast.

This study maps each port and base: who paid for it, who runs it and on what terms. Where the public record runs out, we mark the gap rather than fill it.