External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that denying the concept of Indo-Pacific is tantamount to reuting globalisation as the region captures a mix of India’s broadening horizons, widening interests and globalised activities.
Addressing the CII Partnership Summit 2020, Jaishankar said the Indo-Pacific concept has recently gained greater salience in diplomatic parlance.
"Indo-Pacific is not tomorrow's forecast but yesterday's reality. Literally, it signifies the confluence of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans that can no longer be handled as distinct spheres," he said.
Jaishankar asserted that doing so would either mean "we are being deliberately outdated; or that we have chosen to make only selective exceptions".
Neither, of course, suits India, or indeed much of the international community, he said.
Given that this region is primarily a maritime space, countries are naturally focused on building practical cooperation in that domain, Jaishankar said, adding that a safe, secure and stable maritime space is a necessary condition for peace, security and prosperity.
"Conversely, threats there imperil human security in all its dimensions, whether by disrupting commerce, disturbing the ecology, or creating disputes over ownership and rights. In our inter-dependent world, the complexity of such challenges has become too large for any one nation to address by itself," he added.
India's concept of the Indo-Pacific is inclusive in nature, and supports an approach that respects the right to freedom of navigation and overflight for all in the international seas.
"Indeed, the very vastness of this arena brings out why the need for collaborative action has now become so pressing. Naturally, the individual interests of countries are at stake; but so too is their collective benefit in ensuring that the global commons is better secured," Jaishankar said.
It is the challenge of harmonising these pulls and pressures that the Indo-Pacific policy of all players needs to address, he added.
On June 1, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined India's vision for the Indo-Pacific region in his speech delivered at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore.
