India and the Proliferation Security Initiative: A US Perspective

The fractured geopolitics of the United States in the Indian Ocean Region

“…India is loath to agree to any formal alliance with the United States, or to help to contain China's expansion at the cost of its own relationship with China (although the United States itself may be engaging in strategic hedging rather than containment, particularly with regard to China's search for energy supply routes from the Indian Ocean back to the Chinese homeland (Tessman and Wolfe 2011)). India has also been wary of participating in US-led multilateral initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, even when it has agreed with the basic principles, due to lingering resentment about nonproliferation standards (Kumar 2009;Holmes 2007). Moreover, while the United States sees little downside in Indian maritime expansion in the Indian Ocean, India will not engage in a hierarchical partnership with the United States, as Japan has, nor is it willing to see US naval or military presence in the region (such as at Diego Garcia) if this presence comes at the expense of its own strategic influence, given that it is, after all, the primary great power in the geographic centre of the Indian Ocean Region (Berlin 2010;Holmes and Yoshihara 2008).…”