As US switches focus in the Pacific, it’s time for New Delhi to strengthen ties in the Indo-Atlantic

What’s in an abbreviation? An entire ocean.

In 2018, when the United States expanded the USPACOM, the official name of its Pacific military command that has overseen security across more than half the world since World War II to USINDOPACOM, it indicated a pinnacle of sorts for US-India relations.

Critics warned that the Indian Ocean Region and India’s prominence as the main security provider and first responder in the area would be pushed into the shadows by the pomp and circumstance of the grandly titled “Indo-Pacific”. But since an aggressive China was the common denominator for all involved in the new nomenclature, hopes and enthusiasm were high.

India was dealing with China’s aggression along its 3,500-km-plus land border. New Delhi was also concerned by the rapid spread of Beijing’s Belt-and-Road Initiative across the Indian Ocean, especially through countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Maldives, which, up to then, were considered close regional allies.

Both the US and Japan (the latter was the original author of the concept of an “Indo-Pacific”) were determined to keep Chinese expansionism and aggression in the South China Sea in check.

They were also concerned about the shipping lanes through the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean, since 80% of the world’s energy and...

Read more