By Interaction Desk
The foundations for the contemporary use of the Indo-Pacific were arguably laid by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spoke of a “dynamic coupling” of the Indian and Pacific Oceans in a 2007 speech to the Indian parliament titled “Confluence of the Two Seas.” For Abe, the original “Indo-Pacific” concept was always paired with a normative vision for the region.
In his 2007 speech, he envisioned an “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity…along the outer rim of the Eurasian continent” and implored India to “work alongside us to enrich the seas of freedom and prosperity, which will be open and transparent to all.” However, India was reluctant to accept this concept till 2019.
Hillary Clinton the Foreign Minister of USA advised India in 2007 to look towards East Instead of looking west. But India’s main interest is to become hegemonic power of South East Asia. Its antipathy towards Pakistan is so hard that it would like to subdue Pakistan first and use all resources that would be available to it in Indo-Pacfic region shall be used against Pakistan. In Pakistan and China and other countries it is American design for contain China and usurp the riches of South China Sea,
Defining the Free and Open Indo-Pacific requires first distinguishing it from, and understanding its relationship to, the Indo-Pacific concept at its foundation. The Indo-Pacific perception has slowly pursued and pressurized the countries around Indo Pacific region by over the past decade as a means of redefining the geostrategic boundaries of the Asia-Pacific. Rather than positing a sharp division between the Indian and Pacific Oceans or between South and East Asia the Indo-Pacific encourages USA to think about this super-region as a unitary, interconnected geostrategic space.
A leading advocate of the concept, Australian analyst Rory Medcalf, argues the Indo-Pacific “recasts the mental map of some of the most strategically important parts of the globe.” It means “recognizing that the accelerating economic and security connections between the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean are creating a single strategic system.”
In 2011 senior U.S. officials began adopting the Indo-Pacific terminology and it was formally incorporated in the Australian government’s 2013 Defense White Paper. After some initial hesitation, India has also warmed to the term, though the same cannot be said for China, whose Global Times newspaper deemed it an “empty slogan.”
Several geostrategic trends are responsible for the growing popularity of the Indo-Pacific. China’s strategic attention and agenda have been steadily drawn westward, a phenomenon amplified by President Xi Jinping’s plans for an expansive connectivity network through the Indian Ocean and Eurasian supercontinent, the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, India has upgraded a decades-old “Look East” policy to an “Act East” policy in an attempt to atone for its 20th century neglect of East and Southeast Asia. In recent years Delhi has forged and elevated several strategic partnerships in East Asia, most notably with Japan.
The Indo-Pacific also emphasizes the increasingly vital role of the Indian Ocean (and the maritime arena more broadly) as both a conduit for global trade and an emerging arena of competition. Bookended by two of the world’s most critical trade chokepoints, the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca, the Indian Ocean’s sea lines of communication connect Asian energy consumers to their suppliers in the Middle East.
In 2008, the Chinese navy began plying the waters of the Indian Ocean on a routine basis for the first time in modern history. Chinese anti-piracy patrols begun that year were followed by nuclear and conventional submarine deployments in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, China reached an agreement with Djibouti to establish its first overseas military base and recent reports suggest China plans to build a new naval base at Pakistan’s Gwadar port. For its part, India is conducting more naval deployments to and exercises in the Western Pacific and has become a vocal advocate for freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Ultimately, the “Indo-Pacific” attempts to elevate the importance of the maritime domain and encapsulate the geopolitical consequences of China pushing west and India pushing east, creating an expanding zone of competitive overlap and progressively binding the Indian and Pacific Oceans to each other and to overland strategic developments in South and East Asia.
Whereas for USA, the Indo-Pacific represents an effort to create a new geographic and geopolitical paradigm, the Free and Open Indo-Pacific is a normative concept imbued with the values, principles, and norms the United States and other Quad members see as underpinning the informal regional order
it is widely propagated by USA and its allies that Chinese foreign policy has assumed a more assertive and nationalist character since 2008, punctuated by a series of crises and elevated friction along its disputed land and maritime borders: from constructing and militarizing artificial islands and attempting to restrict freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, to launching prolonged incursions across the disputed China-India border and repeatedly threatening its neighbors with war.
What exactly do the Free and Open Indo-Pacific and the rules-based order represent?: Freedom of navigation and over flight, The rule of law, Freedom from coercion, Respect for sovereignty, Private enterprise and open markets, Freedom and independence of all nations.
For the world it just a new type of Major competition between China and USA where is gathering its allies around China. Pushing this conception, Washington’s ultimate aim is to legitimize its military presence in the region for China’s suppression. This conception is also against Pakistan that India may try to become regional hegemonic power. Pakistan may not it happen, Nevertheless, India is playing in the hands of USA putting itself in to great difficulty.
It should learn lesson from Pakistan that Pakistan was harmed itself by siding USA, It has gone through a blood bath, destroying its economy and loosing friends. It has learnt that it is better to be among neighbors peacefully instead indulging itself into world power game to make USA a single super power and left Pakistan to clean the debris of war.