The “Indo-Pacific”: Voices of India and the US about a new strategic concept
The relatively new strategic term “Indo-Pacific” is getting internationally acknowledged. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put it at the centre of his strategic outreach; the US Secretary of Defence James Mattis has publicly recognized its relevance and the Hawaii-based US Pacific Command in charge of US military activities in the Pacific has been renamed “Indo-Pacific Command”. This is a clear indication that “Indo-Pacific” is no longer just a geographic term. It is the starting point for a strategic concept.
As PM Modi has recently spelled it out at a regional conference, the Indo-Pacific is the region within which India sees its essential interests of strategic partnerships and economic development. India recognizes the South East Asian nations and economies as its natural cooperation partners when building and strengthening the bridges between the Indian and the Pacific Ocean. And it puts the ASEAN at the centre of its institutional network in the Indo-Pacific region. The political framework is the Indian Government’s “Act East Policy”.
According to India, the concept should aim at a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, in which participating nations in a common pursuit of progress and prosperity should seek multilateral forms for the development of institutional structures of peace and security in the region. One key aspect of the concept is a “common rules-based order for the region”, in which no grouping of states should seek to dominate others. In India’s view, this would include equal access to the use of common spaces on sea and in the air. This requirement logically hints at recent Chinese moves to ascertain areas of exclusive use. By calling for the equality of all nations irrespective of size and strength, for the freedom of navigation, for the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law India bans from the Indo-Pacific all hegemonic dreams of old or new powers. With that, the “Indo-Pacific” contains some antagonistic potential directed against China, the other giant of the continent. So far for India’s positioning.
The US for its part, represented at the same regional conference by its Defence Secretary James Mattis, embraced all principles and values meant to guide a free and open Indo-Pacific as introduced by the Indian Prime Minister. Mattis seemed, however, to ignore that India’s vision for the Indo-Pacific region contains also elements critical to the US determination of imposing shared principles through economic and political and ultimately military power. In short, Modi put the Indo-Pacific region at the centre of India’s foreign and security policy and the South East Asian States and the organisation ASEAN at the centre of the region while the US made clear that “America is in the Indo-Pacific to stay”, which, by its nature, tends to dominating others.
Neither Modi nor Mattis, however, mentioned the QUAD, the quadrilateral security alignment of the US, Japan, Australia and India from some ten years ago. That strategic network with the not so strongly hidden purpose of containing China in the wider region is being revitalised these days. The QUAD will remain in the background of coming Indo-Pacific debates and developments. It reminds us also that geopolitical visions often contain strategic aspirations aiming at dominating others.
Picture: U.S. Pacific Fleet