INDIA'S ANNOYING DRAGON INFESTATION IN ITS POOL

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is undoubtedly one of the most significant areas on the entire planet and covering roughly 20% of the global water expanse.

- DIBAKAR DE

Indian Ocean: A Geopolitical Hotspot

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is undoubtedly one of the most significant areas on the entire planet and covering roughly 20% of the global water expanse. Its impressive surface area of almost 71 million square kilometres is home to 1208 islands and laps the shores of as many as 32 countries. The Indian Ocean Region holds the most strategically important shipping and trading routes out, for instance, the Sunda and Lombok straits, Malacca Strait, Mozambique Channel, Bab-el-Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope, etc. Major scale trading activities take place within these areas with oil bound shipments and the fishing industry occupying a large portion of these activities. Keeping in mind the economic importance of this region, we must not forget that within these waters lies a plethora of factors that have made the IOR reek of volatility and instability. Since the Indian Ocean is pivotal for the sustenance of the global economy, one could even attribute the significance of this ocean to the words of the famous Geopolitical thinker AT Mahan who propounded his famous Theory of Sea Power which states that whoever controls the seas, can control the world.

The Looming Threat