India’s Evolving Approach Towards the Gulf: From Bilateralism to Regionalism

The Gulf and Indo-Pacific are the two strategic regions in India’s extended neighbourhood located, respectively, at the northwestern and southeastern flanks of the Indian Ocean and are key to the geopolitical competition between the United States (US) and China. As China is increasingly a challenge in India’s national security and foreign policy discourses, and the Indo-US partnership takes momentum, it might have implications for India’s approach to the Gulf region. Taking a neoclassical Realist frame of analysis, this article contextualizes the US-China tensions and India’s engagements with the Gulf and the Indo-Pacific regions to argue that the developments in the Indo-Pacific are an important factor to the shifts in India’s approach towards the Gulf.