South China Sea has assumed great geopolitical significance in the present context. Comment.

The South China Sea (SCS), a semi-enclosed sea ringed by China and ASEAN states, has become one of the world's sharpest geopolitical flashpoints.

Why the SCS matters

• Trade artery: roughly one-third of global shipping, worth over 3 trillion dollars annually, transits the SCS, linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans through the Malacca Strait.
• Resources: substantial oil and natural gas reserves and about 12 percent of the global fish catch sustain the littoral economies.
• Strategic geography: control of the sea confers dominance over East Asia's energy lifelines, making it the heart of the Indo-Pacific construct.

Sources of contention

• China's nine-dash line claim over almost the entire sea, its island-building and the militarisation of features in the Spratlys and Paracels.
• Overlapping claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
• The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration award in Philippines v China rejected historic rights under the nine-dash line; Beijing's refusal to accept it challenges UNCLOS and the rules-based order.
• US freedom-of-navigation operations and China's grey-zone coercion of fishing and coast-guard fleets keep tensions simmering, while a China-ASEAN Code of Conduct remains under negotiation.

India's stakes

• Over half of India's trade passes through the SCS-Malacca route, and ONGC Videsh operates hydrocarbon blocks off Vietnam.
• India upholds freedom of navigation and UNCLOS, has supplied BrahMos missiles to the Philippines, and deepens Quad and ASEAN engagement under its Act East policy and Indo-Pacific vision.

The South China Sea is thus the test case of whether Asia's maritime order will be rules-based or power-based, which is the source of its enduring geopolitical significance.