India has traditionally defined its security perimeter as stretching from “Aden to Malacca”. It was a framework that was first articulated during the British Raj, when the undivided subcontinent provided security across the Indian Ocean. In recent years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have reclaimed that tradition by invoking the strategic metaphor “Aden to Malacca”.