Understanding India’s Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative

Today, the Indo-Pacific is a multi-cultural and multi-polar area, accounting for roughly 60% of global GDP and 65% of the world's population. It is also a key depository for both living and non-living aquatic materials. Marine trade and commerce, including energy flows, travelling through the area is very considerable, accounting for over 60% of world maritime trade. [1]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) during the 14th East Asian Summit. It is also part of the SAGAR mission, which aims to improve and extend regional cooperation among India's maritime neighbours. India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) established an Indo-Pacific branch in April 2019. The division aims to bring the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Quadrilateral of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India under one Indo-Pacific umbrella. It is an open, non-treaty-based programme that brings governments together to find cooperative and creative solutions to regional concerns. The Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative focuses on seven pillars which are Maritime Security, Maritime Ecology, Maritime Resources, Capacity Building and Resource Sharing, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Science, Technology, and Academic Cooperation, and Trade Connectivity and Maritime Transport, based on existing regional architecture and mechanisms.

INDIA'S OPPORTUNITIES AND COOPERATION-

The IPOI is based on India's 'Act East' (which focuses on the Eastern Indian Ocean and Western Pacific) and 'Act West' policy (which focuses on the Western Indian Ocean). It aims to broaden the Indo-Pacific narrative by including a varied range of problems and possibilities that go beyond traditional security threats and geostrategic concerns. The marine area also encompasses economic, environmental, and technological problems. The architecture is open, inclusive, and cooperative, allowing any two or more countries to engage in a particular industry. India and Australia, for example, are cooperating on maritime security and safety, as well as conserving the Indo-Pacific marine environment. The Australia-India Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative Cooperation (AIIPOIP) was established as a follow-up to the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and was announced in June 2020. Australia was named the lead partner on the Maritime Ecology pillar, with the goal of fostering scientific collaboration and sharing best practises on decreasing marine pollution in the Indo-Pacific, with an emphasis on plastic waste. India has also intended to develop ideas and bring all stakeholders together in a collaborative manner to exchange skills and resources during the early phase. Vietnam, the Philippines, and, most recently, France have consented to become members of IPOI.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) lies at the heart of India's Indo-Pacific strategy. Regardless of its non-engagement in multilateral forums such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference, India may strengthen bilateral and multilateral connections with East Asian nations. India has also been exploring the aspect of taking the lead in these multilateral organisations like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation and the Mekong–Ganga Cooperation, both of which involve ASEAN members. Infrastructure, fintech, information technology-enabled services, e-commerce, education and skill development, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and agriculture and food processing are all areas where India needs to strengthen its economic collaboration with ASEAN.

For countries like Japan, Australia, and the United States, New Delhi has grown in strategic importance. China, along with Europe, Africa, and South Asia, has recently expanded its economic, political, and military capacities, forcing the other major countries to reassess and update their strategies. This new environment, which is simultaneous to Beijing's growth, is now shaping New Delhi's foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi is advocating for a cooperative framework to develop the Oceans programme, with the goal of fostering a culture of institutional participation in the Indian Ocean Region that will strengthen India's power and influence. India is a member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the Indian Ocean Region's most well-known institutional entity, which has operated mostly in isolation. But now, the foreign policy and strategies in this region is getting revised. The strategy is mostly looking at a holistic approach and development that will include the cooperation and coordination of international organisations, the regional groupings and individual countries and countries those have vested interests in the region.

There are two ways to look at India's rising connectivity in the Indo-Pacific. First, New Delhi attempts to strike a delicate balance in the Indo-Pacific between allegiance and sovereignty. India's involvement in the Quad is justified by the necessity to see the Indo-Pacific as a strategic continuity rather than a collection of sub-regionally fragmented ambitions, collaborations, and orientations. The Quad allows India to exploit its strategic centre in the region to improve its security vision in the Indo-Pacific region, stretching from the Gulf to the Malacca Strait on the other end by linking with territorial ends on both sides of the peninsula. Second, India's attitude toward Pacific Island Countries has been steadily improving. This move might be connected to a number of diplomatic, economic, and geopolitical concerns. From a geostrategic sense, these Island countries are part of a larger Indo-Pacific region. These countries can be a tempting supply of natural resources like LNG and hydrocarbons to fuel India's rising economy and new markets, thanks to their vast reserves Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).

As previously stated, India has taken a diplomatic and, to some extent, protectionist strategy in the Indo-Pacific, attempting to appease all of the region's allies while retaining regional autonomy. This is a clear indication that India is no longer a plaything for superpowers to exploit. It is a sovereign nation with the ability to make its own decisions, and nothing can compel it to do so. Finally, India's destiny will be determined by how it accommodates its Indo-Pacific partners while maintaining its autonomy over commerce and security. In the future years, its ability to establish economic, military, and diplomatic capabilities will determine its fate in the area.

CHALLENGES IN INDO-PACIFIC-

From the Persian Gulf through the mid-Indian Ocean archipelago to the Southwest Pacific, the Indo-Pacific is rife with maritime territorial conflicts. The Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands (Japan-China); the Pratas Islands (Taiwan-China); the Paracels (China-Vietnam); the Scarborough Shoal (China-Philippines); and the Spratly archipelago (China-Vietnam-Philippines-Malaysia-Brunei) and Kenya-Somalia territorial dispute are among the most notable of these disputes. International collaboration is difficult to envisage because of these conflicts which makes the sustainable fisheries management agreements very complex. These rifts are the main reason why the regional groupings have been unsuccessful and fail to agree on a mutual decision about the region. The second issue is how other nations in the region would react to any security measures taken in the region. It is a problematic picture because each country will view things differently, and not all of them will be aligned with India's interests. Stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific area regard the balancing act between the US, China, and Russia as a source of uncertainty, which is justified. The balance of power keeps shifting every now and then and these small island nations are not being able to take a strong stand.

China's incursion and expansionist tactics have affected the majority of nations in the Indo-Pacific region. In addition, China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean has steadily increased, generating security worries for India and other island nations. Historically non-aligned countries like India are now revising their policy position, losing their fear of enraging Chinese sensibilities and forming issue-based alliances with other Indo-Pacific states. As a result, like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific area are cooperating on a variety of multilateral and plurilateral platforms to keep the world order stable.

CONCLUSION-

Many parties in the Indo-Pacific area see the Indian subcontinent as a crucial strategic partner, and it has been a key factor in luring Gulf nations and resource-rich African countries into the Indo-Pacific zone's diaspora. Despite opting out of the RCEP, India has inked substantial Free-Trade Agreements with ASEAN countries to maintain its economic ties with the region. In addition, by joining the Quad, participating in various bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral military exercises, and cooperating economically with nations such as the United States, Australia, Japan, and even Russia in recent years, India has won significant allies. This presents India as a strong and neutral party in front of the Island nations.

India has been trying to take a multi-pronged approach to regional cooperation, aligning its capabilities and goals with those of other nations, establishing inter-trade facilitation centres with an emphasis on specialist commodities and services, and using technology to create responsive processes. India's institutional capacity, which should include specialised departments of competitiveness and industrial development, trade policy, and negotiation, is critical to accomplishing these economic goals in the area.

The Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative encourages regional countries to go beyond narrow geopolitics and collaborate to protect the maritime domain in all of its forms for the greater welfare of humanity. In terms of India, which was not a member of any of the 20th-century power blocs, her vision for the Indo-Pacific and the underlying concept of IPOI provide a chance for issue-based collaborations in line with the fundamental principle of Security and Growth for All in the Region. At the same time, the IPOI is still in its early stages and has hurdles; Australia's early participation and the enthusiasm exhibited by many countries to be partners in the project bode well for its future and will help India emerge as a significant role in the Indo-Pacific in the twenty-first century.

REFERENCE-

[1] Indo–Pacific Oceans Initiative. (n.d.). Indian Defence Review, from http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/indo-pacific-oceans-initiative/

Pic Courtesy-Ziad Al Halabi at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)