India's Approaches to the South China Sea: Priorities and Balances

Abstract The research inquiries into New Delhi's current approaches to Maritime Asia regional security in general and the South China Sea from the perspective of an Indian Act East Policy operating in the East Asian security supercomplex. Shaped by theoretical insights from defensive realism and security studies and based on empirical analysis of India's policy decisions from 2014 to the present, the research evaluates India's reach and limitations over its diplomatic and naval strategic policies with key Southeast Asian and extra regional states, mainly Vietnam, the United States and Japan. While identifying the need to update current India's naval strategy to better protect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, the analysis finds relevant incentives for a closer India–China cooperative engagement so as to both improve the security architecture in this maritime region and for the sake of India's own security at large.