On Reclaiming the IndoPacific narrative (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : International Relations
Prelims level : Indo-Pacific narrative
Mains level : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s
interest

Context

• ASEAN has released a vision document on Indo-Pacific region.

Significance

• Though there were divisions among ASEAN member states in the run-up to the summit, they managed to come up with a non-binding document.
• It underlines in the document the need for an inclusive and “rules-based framework” to “help to generate momentum for building strategic trust and win-win cooperation in the region”.
• An awareness of the emergence of a great power contest around its vicinity pervades the document as it argues that “the rise of material powers, i.e. economic and military, requires avoiding the deepening of mistrust, miscalculation and patterns of behaviour based on a zerosum game”.
• Despite individual differences and bilateral engagements ASEAN member states have with the U.S. and China, the regional grouping can now claim to have a common approach as far as the IndoPacific region is concerned.
• And, the Thailand’s PM suggests revising the framework on ASEAN cooperation at the regional and sub-regional levels and generate tangible and concrete relations among the countries.
• Further, the idea is put under two heads:

Conduct in the China Sea

• U.S. Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy report focuses on preserving a “free and open Indo-Pacific” in the face of a more “assertive China” — was perhaps the final push that was needed to bring the ASEAN discussions on the subject to a close.
• Also, Japan had already unveiled its Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept in 2016, while Australia released its Foreign Policy White Paper in 2017, detailing its Indo-Pacific vision centred on security, openness and prosperity.
• Again, Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated India’s Indo-Pacific vision at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2018, with India even setting up an Indo-Pacific wing in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) earlier this year.
• For a long time, the ASEAN has been reluctant to frontally engage with the Indo-Pacific discourse as the perception was that it may antagonise China.
• But there was soon a realisation that such an approach might allow others to shape the regional architecture and marginalise the ASEAN itself.
• And, so the final outlook that the ASEAN has come up with effectively seeks to take its own position rather than following any one power’s lead.

The framework

• Here, while the ASEAN outlook does not see the Indo-Pacific as one continuous territorial space, it emphasizes development and connectivity, underlining the need for maritime cooperation, infrastructure connectivity and broader economic cooperation.
• And, also, the ASEAN is signaling that it would seek to avoid making the region a platform for major power competition. Instead its frame of reference is economic cooperation
  and dialogue.
• Obviously, India has welcomed the ASEAN’s outlook on the Indo-Pacific as it sees “important elements of convergence” with its own approach towards the region.
• Also, India continues to invest in the Indo-Pacific; on the side-lines of the recent G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, Mr. Modi held discussions on the Indo-Pacific region with U.S.
  President Donald Trump and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a focus on improving regional connectivity and infrastructure development.

Conclusion

• Altogether, with the ASEAN finally coming to terms with its own role in the Indo-Pacific, the ball is now in the court of other regional stakeholders to work with the regional grouping
  to shape a balance of power in the region which favours inclusivity, stability and economic prosperity.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With respect to “Ramanujan Machine”, recently seen in news, consider the following statements:
1. The purpose of the machine is to come up with conjectures that humans can analyze, and hopefully prove to be true mathematically.
2. It is developed by students from Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both
D. None

Answer: A
Mains Questions:
Q.1) The ASEAN’s intent to be in the driving seat is clear as it seeks to manage the emerging regional order with policy moves. Comment.