The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ has been thrown around recently, but what does it mean to different countries and why is it being used?
After the US Trump administration’s adoption of the Indo-Pacific strategy in 2017, the idea of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ as a regional concept has since increasingly grown in salience, with different countries putting forward their own perspectives on the region.
What is the ‘Indo-Pacific’?
In broad terms, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ is an imaginary space that links the Indian Ocean with the Asia-Pacific. The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ is not new by any means, but countries around the region have become more invested in the concept amidst geopolitical shifts in the Asia-Pacific region.
All four members of the informal Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the ‘Quad’ – the United States, Japan, India and Australia – have each offered their own views on the Indo-Pacific. ASEAN, being right in the heart of the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific’, has also developed the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific”.
However, an assessment by the Asia Strategy Initiative (ASI) shows that there is a significant difference in the geographical coverage of the Indo-Pacific.
The United States describes the Indo-Pacific region as ranging from the west coast of India to the western shores of the United States, aligned with the Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility. Meanwhile, Japan, Australia, and India define the Indo-Pacific as including the entire Indian Ocean from the eastern coast of Africa across the Pacific Ocean to the Americas. ASEAN does not regard it as a contiguous territorial space but as a closely integrated and interconnected region.
