Needed, A Cohesive Indo-Pacific Framework

Divergence in US-India views on the troubled West Indian Ocean littorals such as Pakistan and Iran must be ironed out

- Paras Ratna

Last year at the IISS Shangri-La dialogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined India’s conceptualization of the Indo-Pacific as a geographic continuum stretching from the east coast of Africa to the shores of America. India didn’t adopt IndoPacific at the behest of the US.

As is the case with regions that are imagined spaces, there exist competing conceptualizations regarding its geographical expanse; depending upon the actor(s) imagining it. India’s definition includes the western Indian Ocean (and “for something, not against somebody,” according to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar), while the US perceives the Indo-Pacific as a containment strategy region extending from the shores of America to the west coast of India.

As Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “the US Indo-Pacific strategy needs more Indian Ocean.” The US National Security Strategy document (NSS) remains silent on the Western Indian Ocean maritime space including the eastern coast of Africa and the Arabian Sea — priorities for India’s strategic interest. The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), jointly established by India and South Africa in 1967, broadly traverses the geography pointed out by Modi in his Shangri-La speech.

Choke points