India's $10 billion project to develop Great Nicobar Island into a major hub near the Malacca Strait highlights the strategic importance of trade routes amid global energy crises. This initiative complicates already competitive maritime relations between India and China.

The global energy crisis stemming from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has added complexity to already competitive China-India maritime relations. The bottleneck in the Gulf has disrupted the provision of vital supplies of oil, gas and fertilisers to Asia, underscoring the fragility of global supply chains and the significance of trade chokepoints. Amid uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz’s reopening, India’s US$10 billion plan to transform remote Great Nicobar Island into a...