India's navy as leverage in a China crisis

How might a China-India confrontation affect naval strategy?

India could use the navy to apply indirect pressure on Pakistan or signal through Southeast Asian deployments while the main fighting pressure remains on land.

The difficult northeastern land front still left India with leverage at sea. Naval activity could remind Pakistan that its coast was vulnerable. A conspicuous Indian exercise in Southeast Asia could also signal to other regional powers. Such measures would not solve the border dispute directly, but they could alter the wider strategic calculation.