Contest for the Indian Ocean

 The July 2025 issue of Asia Policy contains a book review roundtable of Darshana M. Baruah's book titled The Contest for the Indian Ocean and the Making of a New World Order (Yale University Press 2024).  The focus of the book is great power competition and the role of the island countries in the Indian Ocean.

The roundtable consists of the following brief discussions:

--Power Asymmetry and Competition in the Indo-Pacific: The Island States of the Indian Ocean by Frederic Grare.

--Prioritizing the Indian Ocean in the Indo-Pacific by Nilanthi Samaranayake.

--The Agency of Island States in the Geopolitics of the Indian Ocean by Isabelle Saint-Mezard.

--The Island States Have Agency in the Contest for the Indian Ocean--But How? by Pradeep Taneja.

--Opening, Broadening, and Deepening the 'Geo' in the Geoppolitics of the Indian Ocean by Sanjay Chaturvedi.

--Author's Response: Reframing the Indian Ocean Debate by Darshana M. Baruah.

China Steps Up Influence in Western Indian Ocean

 The Australian Institute of International Affairs posted on 16 October 2023 a commentary titled "China's Western Indian Ocean Step Up" by Kate O'Shaughnessy, Perth USAsia Centre and former Australian high commissioner to Mauritius and Seychelles and ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros.

China has been steadily building its presence in the Western Indian Ocean.  Beijing has the largest diplomatic presence in Seychelles and is the largest foreign donor in the Comoros.  France and India are watching this development with concern.