Control of the seas is critical for maritime trade, and in the Indian Ocean, global currents have brought China, the U.S., and India together on a potential collision course.

China, the United States and India have different strategic goals and so their interests conflict — so much so that strategic suspicion has fostered a negative kind of competition in which the other side is labeled as a primary rival. Of course there is a way to break the impasse. But it boils down to whether the parties really want to.

The COVID-19 crisis in India has created an opening for China to flex its regional influence, while the U.S. intends to draw India into America’s orbit for good.

Existing tensions between India and Pakistan are being stoked by the U.S. and China, with all parties seeking the elimination of perceived threats for rapid economic growth and security.

In India, the United States finds a South Asian partner that shares grievances with China. However, by viewing India only on the plane of conflict with China, the U.S. lacks a long-term path toward building a productive relationship with the world’s second most populous nation.

India and China have had a long history of testy disputes around the mountainous borderlands between the world’s most populous nations. The U.S. sees this conflict as an opportunity to gain a strategic ally in its new Cold War with China.

As the United States tries to recruit India into its anti-China coalition, India should be cautious. While the chance of a war is remote, the growing strategic confrontation between the world’s two largest economies could put it in a bind.

As a new global power center, it doesn’t need to be part of the master-slave relationship of the United States and its allies. For now, India should be vigilant, act cautiously and wait for new forces to emerge in Washington.

In 1962, American Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith deftly diffused tensions between China and India to stop an escalating conflict. Sixty years later, diplomats would do well to heed his example in moderating Sino-Indian tensions.

U.S. President Donald Trump made his first state visit to India last week, looking to shore up bilateral ties and secure progress on several touchy issues, most notably the U.S.-India trade imbalance.