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As a first step, India and China must commit to respecting each other's 'core' interests reasonably defined in their respective backyards. Conversely, both countries must respect each other's maritime engagements with third parties so long as these engagements do not trample on their counterparts' interests. Infrastructure investment must not be weaponised under any circumstance. Next, both India and China bear an obligation to keep their surface and sub-surface fleets at some distance from their counterparts' naval bastions so as not to degrade the integrity of their second-strike deterrence capability. To the extent that India and China seek to exercise leverage over Asia's maritime choke points, both countries would be better-off exploring a broader bargain that resists the temptation to challenge each other's growing authority west and east of Sumatra, respectively. In the longer term, India, China and their Asian partners should aim to develop soft laws that fortify the ongoing development and conservationist orientation of global sea law, and to the relative disfavour of military and other non-peaceful uses of the sea. The lessons learnt by India and China in stabilising their disputed land boundary offer useful pointers to chart a framework to regulate their interactions at sea. Let this journey of a thousand miles commence with a single step at the next informal summit.