Strategic High Tide in the Indo-Pacific: Economics, Ecology and Security
India has outlined her own vision of the Indo-Pacific as natural extension of its immediate geographical region that hosts a vast array of global opportunities and challenges. The Bay of Bengal, and its auxiliary — the Andaman Sea — is India’s geostrategic gateway into the wider waters of the Indo-Pacific. To India, the Indo-Pacific is neither a club of limited members, nor a grouping that seeks to dominate the region. By no means does India consider it as directed against any country. Instead, stretching from the shores of Africa to that of America, as the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared at the Shangri-La Dialogue, 2018, for India, the Indo-Pacific vision is based on inclusiveness, openness, ASEAN centrality and unity. Conceptualising Indo-Pacific as a natural geographical region that hosts “a vast array of global opportunities and challenges,” India has launched the Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative (IPOI) to focus on seven central pillars conceived around Maritime Security; Maritime Ecology; Maritime Resources; Capacity Building and Resource Sharing; Disaster Risk Reduction and Management; Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation; and Trade Connectivity and Maritime Transport. Given the wide experience of Japan in the field of connectivity, their lead on this pillar of IPOI will prove to be a great fillip for the connectivity initiatives in the Indo-Pacific.
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