Commercial projects by Indian and Chinese firms may be deployed for defense use, experts warned.

In response to Beijing's overseas military base in Djibouti, New Delhi has sought to access facilities in the Seychelles, Oman and Singapore.

China and India are competing for regional supremacy in the Indian Ocean as they look establish a stronger military and economic presence in bordering countries.

Competition between historical rivals China and India is spreading across the ocean.

A Chinese navy vessel in western Indian Ocean waters on Aug. 25, 2017 Xinhua / Xu Shouming / Getty Images

From Tanzania to Sri Lanka, the two Asian heavyweights are trying to establish a stronger military and economic presence in countries along the Indian Ocean in a quest for regional supremacy. China, the world's second biggest economy, is looking to build what some policy experts call a "string of pearls" — a network of defense and commercial facilities — around the massive area. Beijing in 2016 revealed plans to launch its first overseas military base in Djibouti. Numerous business projects by state-owned Chinese enterprises under President Xi Jinping's massive Belt and Road program, which includes a port in Tanzania, have reinforced its efforts. New Delhi, unsettled by the thought of Beijing dominating its own backyard, is responding in kind.

On a visit to Oman last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured access to naval facilities in the Middle Eastern state, which is near the Strait of Hormuz. More than 30 percent of seaborne oil exports pass through that narrow waterway daily. Earlier this year, India signed a 20-year pact with the Seychelles to build an airstrip and a jetty for its navy. Last November, Modi's team inked a pact with Singapore that may boost Indian access to that country's Changi naval base. "It seems that we are in the middle of a base race across the Indian Ocean," David Brewster, senior research fellow at at the Australian National University, wrote in a February note published on think tank The Lowy Institute. "Watch this space." The Indian Ocean, which borders Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, is home to major sea lanes and choke points that are crucial to global trade. Nearly 40 percent of the world's offshore petroleum is produced in the Indian Ocean, which also has rich mineral deposits and fisheries.

Putting commercial projects to military use?