Socotra's Strategic Moment: Indian Ocean Power Competition and the Implications for India

Abstract

Today Socotra Island is the focus of an intense geopolitical rivalry. The Socotra Island is a key point of the current geopolitical competition, in the mouth of Gulf of Aden in northwestern Indian Ocean. Socotra has been neglected by wider strategic thinking in favour of more densely populated areas and islands, yet its strategic location on important sea lanes linking crossways between the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and wider Indo-Pacific has caught the interest of great powers like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and the United States. The present article looks at the geopolitical importance of Socotra as part of Indian Ocean geopolitics, assesses the competing claims of regional and global powers and the implications of Socotra's militarisation on India's Indo-Pacific maritime security architecture and vision of a free, open and rules-based Indian ocean. Using the available research in geopolitics, maritime security and international relations, the article calls for India to reinvent a well-thought out and proactive multilateral policy to secure its strategic interests in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in the backdrop of the multipolar and contested world order.