India strategically poised in Indo-Pacific region

India’s role at the Quad seems central to the Biden administration’s plans for the region and the quest to counter China. US initiatives so far suggests the Biden administration is serious about its stated intention to counter China through alliances, based on shared values

- Asad Mirza

The importance atached by the US to the Indo-Pacific, places India at an advantageous position, both in defence and economic sectors.

While the world was combating the Covid pandemic, international leaders were also busy in realigning the world as per their country’s priorities and goals. One region, which has emerged on the top of this new realignment, is the region of the Indo-Pacific.

The Indo-Pacific comprises the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two oceans around parts of Indonesia. The term “Indo-Pacific” gained usage in geopolitical discourse after 2011. It is also described as a substitute for “Quad” or the Quadrilafteral Security Dialogue, an informal grouping of like-minded democracies in the region, comprising Australia, Japan, India, and the United States.

Historically, “Indo-Pacific” was first used by the German geo-politician Karl Haushofer in the 1920s in his academic work “Indopazifischen Raum”. But its security aspects emerged in the early 2000s when the analysts began to observe the ‘security’ linkage between the two Oceans. In this context, the term was first used in an article authored by Gurpreet Khurana, carried in the January 2007 issue of the Strategic Analysis journal titled “Security of Sea Lines: Prospects for India-Japan Cooperation”. The author refers to the ‘Indo-Pacific’ as the maritime space stretching from the litorals of East Africa and West Asia, across the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean, to the litorals of East Asia.