China's Indian Ocean Strategy

Vijay Sakhuja, director of the New Delhi-based Indian Council for World Affairs traces the history of maritime multilateralism of China's PLA Navy in the wake of the recent Chinese naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden. In an article for Jamestown Foundation's China Brief, "Maritime  Multilateralism:  China’s Strategy for the Indian Ocean", he outlines the increasing albeit selective multilateral role of the Chinese navy among the littorals of the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean and states that Beijing is leveraging its naval power for strategic purposes and the development of military maritime infrastructure in the Indian Ocean would provide China access and a basing facility for conducting sustained operations and emerge as a stakeholder in Indian Ocean security architecture.