The dispatching of Chinese troops to a logistics support base in Djibouti on Tuesday, the first of its kind for the People's Liberation Army, to take up international missions such as peacekeeping and humanitarian aid, has been misinterpreted by some Western media outlets as China's efforts to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean and therefore challenge India's influence in the region.

The misinterpretation coincides with US Navy commander William D Byrne Jr's remark that the Malabar Naval Exercise-2017 by the United States, Japan and India in the Bay of Bengal, which began on Monday, is aimed at achieving deeper military ties between the three nations and "sending a strategic message to China".