Answer: In terms of geo-spatiality, the Indo-Pacific is broadly an interconnected space between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, ranging from the eastern shores of Africa to the western coast of the United States. In the 21 Century, the region is deemed to shape the trajectory of global politics as it is home to some of the world’s largest economies. Given China’s questionable policies and expansionist tendencies that are impeding the interests of nearly all in the Indo-Pacific region, all major powers like the US, Australia, Japan, UK, EU are making the Indo-Pacific the pivot of their foreign, defense and security policies. However, to foster effective collaborations in the region, it is crucial to acknowledge the following variation in focus and underlining intention of each country:

• Differing approaches: On the one hand, the USA has taken a confrontationist approach and its vision of the Indo-Pacific revolves around containing China. On the other hand, ASEAN and European strategies, despite airing their concerns for freedom of navigation, have adopted an inclusive approach which co-opts China.
• Different priorities: Within the Indo-Pacific, Australia’s and Japan’s priorities lie in the Pacific, while France is focused primarily on the western Indian Ocean.
  • Further, the Indian Ocean is a secondary area of concern for Australia and Japan, while the Pacific Ocean is a secondary area of concern for India.
• ASEAN as exception: All participating countries also advocate for enhancing naval and military cooperation with like-minded countries to ensure maritime security with the notable exception of ASEAN. ASEAN also does not favor building quality connectivity infrastructure projects as a joint alternative of China sponsored Belt and Road Initiative.
• Tussle between superpowers: China is focused on expanding its influence in the region while the United States is concerned about its rise and seeks to maintain its dominance. For island nations, stability in the Pacific is critical but Washington’s focus has narrowed to military and strategic advantage in the region.
• India’s focus: India’s view is to work with other like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region to cooperatively manage a rules-based multipolar regional order and prevent any single power from dominating the region or its waterways while China and USA seek to dominate the region.

However, there are some points of synergies as well between the countries:

• Freedom of navigation: The Indo-Pacific vision of all participating countries converges on the issue of freedom of navigation and respect for international laws.
• Maritime cooperation: It is to ensure sustainable use of maritime resources (especially tackling Illegal, unregulated fishing), promoting blue economy, mitigating maritime pollution and climate induced rise in sea level figures prominently in the Indo-pacific visions of all countries.
• Connectivity: All Indo-Pacific vision documents call for close cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries for improving connectivity in all its dimensions transport connectivity, digital connectivity, and human connectivity.
• Digitisation: Digital agenda also occupies an important place in all the strategies including emphasis on promoting Digital trade and cross-border data flow. In other words, Indo-Pacific vision of these countries seeks to promote global digital governance model, which is against data localization.
• Rule based order: All the countries seek to check the rise of China to ensure that a rule-based order prevails in the region.

Indo-Pacific strategies of different global powers also converge on other issues including supply chain diversification, improving connectivity, which further would help in establishing effective collaboration mechanisms in the future.