The Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the geographical region of the world adjoining the western Pacific Ocean. It includes countries from East Asia to Southern Asia and Oceania. Its geographical spread is humongous. The Asia-Pacific region is home to 60 per cent of the world population ~ some 4.5 billion ~ and includes the world’s most populous countries, China and India. APAC has a rich diversity of both socio-economic, natural environmental and abundant natural resources including tropical rain forests and marine products. The term became popular since the late 1980s in commerce, finance and economic cooperation because the nations within APAC were gradually emerging as important markets despite the heterogeneity of the region’s economies.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) provides a good example of a realistic perspective on the AsiaPacific. It unambiguously identifies five major sub-regions of 51 countries making up the geographical region. They are (1) East and North East Asia (ENEA); (2) North and Central Asia (NCA); (3) South and South-West Asia (SSWA); (4) South East Asia (SEA/ ASEAN) and (5) the Pacific. The Asia-Pacific is largely an administrative construction of the region that complements other regional groupings within the United Nations (UN) system. Such groupings, for example, are used to report progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals even though the information provided remains limited.

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The countries under the Asia-Pacific region are of vastly different geographical sizes, populations, diverse regional demography, stages of development, cultures, political orientation and language. Sometimes, the region’s precise boundaries vary depending on the context. For example, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) includes five countries, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru and the US, apart from 16 Pacific Rim member countries of the Asia-Pacific that adjoin the Pacific Ocean. APEC is the only multilateral institution that effectively represents the Asia-Pacific without much participation and involvement by Asian countries. For this reason, Asia-Pacific is seen more as an economic and geographic concept rather than a security and geopolitical notion. India was invited for the first time as an observer to APEC in 2011.

India has ties with the region on a country to country basis through infrastructure and connectivity projects, the “make in India campaign” and information technology. In the AsiaPacific, India has great importance for the International Civil Aviation Organisation and air traffic management. India is a strong pillar of the aviation ecosystem and one of the top civil aviation markets. According to reports, India’s aviation sector has seen unprecedented growth in the last 10 years and the sector has become “inclusive” compared to the past when it was only exclusive to some people. India is on the way to become one of the countries with the best air connectivity and efforts are on to become a global aviation hub.

The growing middle class and the demand created by them is a driving force for the aviation sector in India. It is praiseworthy that in India, 15 per cent of the pilots are wo men, while the global average is 5 percent. Addressing the second Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation in New Delhi in September 2024 at tended by 29 Asia-Pacific countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested the idea of an international Buddhist circuit by way of air connectivity that will benefit countries and people. He also suggested having a comprehensive approach with respect to air rout es taken by professionals in the Asia-Pacific re gion, whi ch is also a bu sin ess hub. Shinzo Abe, for mer Prime Minister of Japan, in his landmark address to the Indian Parliament in 2007, spoke for the first time about public defence of a strategic confluence of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Thus the concept of the Indo-Pacific was born. Japan and India were the first to call for greater convergence in the face of common security concerns across the regional space, thereby introducing a novel form of Asian identity expressed by Abe as “broader Asia”. However, there is scant consensus as to the region’s geographical scope and spread. The debate, dispute and contestation around the terminology demonstrate the eagerness of certain state actors to shape the new regional framework according to their national interests.

According to one view, the Indo-Pacific stretches from the eastern coast of Africa to the Americas. Another view excludes the eastern flank of the Indian Ocean, while Beijing rejects the term completely in what appears to be an effort to denounce anti-China bloc politics. China sees the Indo-Pacific as a forum forcing Asia-Pacific countries to choose sides between Washington and Beijing sowing discord between China and its neighbours. According to China Daily, such Machiavellian schemes won’t take the US anywhere in the Asia-Pacific. The rise of China, the advent of India and Japan as important powers and the consolidation of US presence in the region has given the Indo-Pacific great geopolitical significance.

Experts believe that the Indo-Pacific has also given a direct recognition of the growing importance of India whose emergence as a strong economic power and leading security actor in ways reflected in the old facets of the region. To recollect history, the geographical space referred to as Asia-Pacific revolved primarily around two civilisations, India and China. The colonial system led to the end of Indian and Chinese influence over their neighbours and to a fragmentation of the region. The regional equation changed with the emergence of Japan as an imperial power from the turn of the 20th century, until the end of the Cold War with the Asia-Pacific region undergoing tumultuous de-colonization movements, civil wars and political violence. Today again, it is India and Japan as partners who are reigniting the region in the name of Indo-Pacific with China as the opposition power. Consolidation of US presence in the region has made the Indo Pacific more powerful. The symbolic renaming of the US Pacific Command as the US Indo-Pacific Command in 2018 was a clear policy demonstration of Washington’s adherence to the term. Although the Indo-Pacific overlaps with the concept of Asia-Pacific, the two regional constructs are not identical in their political meanings as a result of history.

The increasing emphasis on great power competition in Indo-Pacific discourses is overtaking Asia-Pacific’s overtones of greater regional and pan-regional cooperation. Marie Kwon, an international expert on geopolitics and security studies in Paris, comments, “Asia-Pacific represented a space in which economic prosperity and security assurances were inherently connected. Indo-Pacific to the contrary, refers to a conceptual dichomization of the economic security nexus. In the Indo-Pacific construct, several countries have to find their equilibrium between their economic reliance on China and dependence on the US for security. Overwhelming tensions between Washington and Beijing has swayed the political relevance of the new Indo-Pacific descriptor. In other words, the China factor is the Indo-Pacific’s elephant in the room”.

China’s increasing assertiveness across the Indian and the Pacific Oceans is a geo-political reality. The address delivered by Prime Minister Abe to the Indian Parliament resulted in the establishment of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) in 2007. This is an informal forum composed of four members, Australia, India, Japan and the US. Its objective is to ensure a free and open IndoPacific. In 2017, Quad gained new impetus to combat China’s growing regional assertiveness. In the face of shared threats, this strategic forum developed a new collective vision which is to counter China’s regional influence and to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific. Quad has increased India’s power projection and strategic relevance. Maritime security is gaining increasing importance in India’s foreign policy in response to Chi na’s growing maritime presence.

Current infrastructural upgrades of the Andaman and Nicobar Command point to a significant shift in India’s approach to securing its maritime frontiers against the backdrop of growing Chinese maritime activities. The Andaman and Nicobar islands occupy a unique geographical position acting as a gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. The proximity to the strategically vital Malacca Strait has enhanced their importance in regional security dynamics. At the latest Quad summit held in the USA in September 2024, the four leaders expressed serious concern arising out of militarisation of disputed features and coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea. The leaders in a joint statement reemphasised the importance of maintaining and upholding freedom of navigation, overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and unimpeded commerce consistent with international law. In a statement before his departure for the Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “the forum has emerged as a key group of like-minded countries to work for peace, progress and prosperity in the IndoPacific region. I will share the views of one-sixth of humanity as their stakes in a peaceful and secure future are among the highest in the world.”

The Asia-Pacific, a geographical space consisting of 51 countries, is an economic conception based on international cooperation. Since the late 1980s, the Asia-Pacific has been experiencing rapid economic growth in spite of vast diversities of the countries and is popularly termed as a zone of emerging markets. India is a member country without any important role. India’s exemplary performance in the aviation sector is a lesson for other countries to emulate. The Indo-Pacific is both an economic and geopolitical concept. Its geographical expanse and limit is ridden with controversy. The domain of Indo-Pacific is mostly sea lines of communication and maritime security in accordance with international law, making it an undefined region of tremendous geostrategic importance. The sea trade routes connect the Middle East, Africa and East Asia with Europe and the US over which the majority of the world’s maritime oil trade and nearly one third of total worldwide trade passes.

Along this route there are crucial passage points, which if obstructed, could potentially bring the world economy to a standstill. Asia-Pacific is traditional and tradition continues. The Indo-Pacific is new but crucial for the survival of the world. In the geo politics of the Indo-Pacific, India is a major player with its strategic goals and perspectives.

(The writer is a former central civil service officer who retired from the Ministry of Defence)