Maritime guardians

The Indian Navy has been at the front and centre of India's Indo-Pacific strategy-from driving maritime security to building regional cooperation, alongside facilitating trade and connectivity across the region

- CAPTAIN BHASKAR JOSHI

The term 'Indo-Pacific' has gained prominence in the last decade with a renewed impetus into the region by the United States of America. Geographically, Indo-Pacific region, as defined by Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, stretches 'from the East Coast of Africa to the Americas'.

The region thus includes the wider Indian and the Pacific Oceans and the connecting seas bounded by several SE Asian and ASEAN countries. Several connecting constructs, either from Western powers such as the US, Japan, Australia; ASEAN countries, the European Union and India, have emerged in the last few years. These include the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or QUAD by Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the USA, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) of the USA, the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) by India and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) initiative of Japan, to name a few.

The common themes that emerge in the articulation of intent by other stakeholders of the Indo-Pacific include 'Free and open Indo-Pacific', Maritime security, 'Enhancing connectivity and infrastructure' and 'Promoting free trade amongst Indo-Pacific countries as also the dominant theme which translates to enhancing prosperity through greater economic cooperation between countries.

India's Indo-Pacific strategy Based on the above, it could be argued that the primary aim of India's Indo-Pacific Strategy remains to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region while enhancing cooperation on diverse but common areas of interest such as trade, infrastructure and maritime security.