ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses how India is managing the rise of China by examining India’s response to the thickening of China–Iran relations. It details how China changed its approach to Iran after the Iran nuclear deal by forging a strategic partnership and argues that the resulting challenge for India was not a hard security threat but the soft challenge of China’s growing influence in the Persian Gulf. The chapter details India’s response through an expanded partnership of its own with Iran, including through the revival of the Chabahar port project. The chapter highlights four structural factors influencing the India–China rivalry over Iran: the possibility of a diminished US role in the Gulf region, China’s emergence as a significant naval power in the Indian Ocean, Iran’s imperial ambitions, and the trajectory of India and China’s respective relationships with the United States.
