Speaking at the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee hearing on “The US-India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America, highlighted India’s growing role in maritime security. He said the Indian Navy has stepped up patrols and contributed to maritime burden sharing in the Indian Ocean and Pacific, particularly in response to China’s recent military expansions.

Jaishankar noted that China has modernized its nuclear arsenal, expanded its navy, and developed new unmanned and cyber capabilities. He also recalled the 2020 border clashes, which left 20 Indian military personnel dead, and pointed to China’s network of dual-use ports across the Indo-Pacific as a strategic concern. He added that India and the US share strategic interests, including trade imbalances with China, rare earth export restrictions, and stabilizing the Middle East.

Sameer Lalwani, Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, cautioned that the India-China relationship remains adversarial due to ongoing border disputes and China’s coercive economic policies. He also noted India’s declining dependence on Russia for defense and energy and stressed the need to close the “say-do gap” in US-India initiatives to fully realize strategic and deterrence benefits.