ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how India manages relations with China and the United States within the larger Indo-Pacific region. After defining the contours of the Indo-Pacific and India’s interest in the region, the chapter argues that India pursues a mixed policy of cooperation and contestation towards China. On the one hand, India seeks to foster stability through deeper economic interdependence and institutional links with China, and, on the other, India seeks security through building internal strength and pursuing deeper security ties with the United States, but also with Japan, Australia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, in order to foster stability through a balance of power. The chapter concludes with cautious optimism that Asian countries might gradually evolve a model of cooperative security.
