Is Indian Ocean the Next Battleground?

Satellite Image of Chagos Islands
Image Source : Wikimedia Commons

Connecting Gulf of Eden and Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean emerges as having both strategic and economic importance to the world.

Indian Ocean is the region that caters to 40% of world's oil supply amounting to 64% of oil trade. And with over 34% world population residing in the coastal economies, countries like India, USA, France, UK and China are adamant to increase their military presence here. Stretching across three continents and acting as a junction to various strategically important straits and passes, the ocean comes with a wide range of economic and strategic opportunities.

The ocean is believed to have rich petroleum and oil deposits due to the fact that Persian Gulf which is the largest oil producing basin in the world is located here. The region also provides huge deposits of Manganese nodules, Titanium oxide, Zircon, Chromite and so on. Indian Ocean is home to 23 out of 100 largest sea ports in the world. It carries about half of the world's sea-borne oil. The intra-regional trade accounts to 27.2% of total trade which supports many marine industries. It caters to raw materials for biotechnology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, seaweed harvesting and marine derived bio-products.

Contributing immensely to the GDP of various economies sharing maritime borders with the Indian Ocean, the power sector has definitely found its way into the huge empire of marine industry with offshore wind, wave and tidal energy production plants being set up at an unprecedented level. Marine tourism, Engineering consultancy, Meteorological Consultancy, Environment consultancy are some of the major beneficiaries of this industry with Marine tourism taking the maximum share of the business.

However the region has seen an increase in piracy cases contributing to 40% of global piracy incidents, and is accompanied by concerning actions by few regional superpowers which has added to the instability in the region.

Economically powerful countries don't shy away from claiming what's not theirs', and in the name of national interest, they have turned the Indian Ocean into a battleground. This battleground is one of the most prosperous regions in the world but due to the ongoing tussle among the neighbours here, one spark can bring down the entire global economy and can very well be the breeding ground for World War III. Certainly Indian Ocean in this present situation has become an OCEAN THAT MATTERS.

 

The views expressed above are personal and belong to the author.

This post has been written by Rishav Kumar.

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