India, May 30 -- China's maritime vulnerability begins at the Strait of Hormuz rather than the Strait of Malacca, creating a new arena of strategic competition in the Indian Ocean among Beijing, India, France and the US, according to a report by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Released ahead of the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue security summit that opened in Singapore on Friday, the report says the Indian Ocean Region is re-emerging as a key strategic theatre after decades of relative calm following the end of the Cold War.

The report, titled "Asia Pacific Regional Security Assessment", argues that China's dependence on energy supplies moving through the Indian Ocean has made the region increasingly import...