India, ASEAN and Indo-Pacific geopolitics

The term Indo-Pacific carries different significance for its participants. For USA, the term signifies the extension of Pentagon’s strategic focus from the Asia-Pacific to the Indian Ocean region amidst the ‘rise of China’ in this vast maritime domain. While for both India and ASEAN Indo-Pacific ‘geo-strategy’ is an opportunity to establish their centrality in the geopolitics of the region. US- sponsored Indo-Pacific naval strategy is China-centric in character looking for partnership with India and ASEAN to counter China ‘threat’. India invests in her naval potentials since lately with same objective. However, India cannot afford to engage in overt anti-China mission led by USA. Thus, she opts for her traditional strategic approach of ‘to engage to contain’ vis-à-vis the Asian giant through multilateral engagements led by ASEAN which is beneficial to ensure tranquil Indo-Pacific region, important for commercial interests of both, as against aggressive strategy of USA.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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