Anshita Shukla Jayantika Rao T. V. Biren Nanda

DPG is deeply committed to the growth of India’s national power and purpose, the security and prosperity of the people of India and India’s contributions to the global public good. [...] The primary catalyst turning up current tensions between the predecessor and the incumbent President appears to be the plans to amend the constitution of the Philippines. [...] The calls for secession of the island could threaten the peace brokered by an agreement between the government and the largest rebel group in the region. [...] India’s primary maritime area of interest is, therefore, from the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal in the west, to the Straits of Malacca in the east, and the Cape of Good Hope in the South. [...] In addition to the development of military and dual- use Chinese infrastructure in India’s neighborhood and the Indian Ocean, India’s concerns are three-fold: the risk of Chinese assertiveness on the disputed border, the possibility of Chinese primacy in the Indo-Pacific region, and an uneven economic playing field.