Indrani Bagchi   

The Indo-Pacific occupied the bulk of the discussions during the 2+2 dialogue here on Thursday, indicating the growing importance of this policy in a region where China is beginning to impact Indian and US security considerations.

In her remarks, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said “we noticed a growing convergence of views between our countries on the Indo-Pacific. Our respective approaches towards this concept have been outlined by our leaders — by President Trump at the APEC meeting last year and by PM Modi at the Shangri-La Dialogue this summer. We see the Indo-Pacific as a free, open and inclusive concept, with ASEAN centrality at the core and defined by a common rulesbased order that both our countries are pursuing.”

In response her counterpart, Michael Pompeo said, “We should continue to ensure the freedom of the seas and the skies; uphold the peaceful resolution of territorial maritime disputes; promote market-based economics; support good governance, fundamental rights, and liberties; and prevent external economic coercion.”

The joint statement added that US and India reaffirmed “common principles” for the Indo-Pacific which was defined as “free and open”, “based on recognition of ASEAN centrality and on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, rule of law, good governance, free and fair trade, and freedom of navigation and overflight. Noting the importance of infrastructure and connectivity for the Indo-Pacific region, both sides emphasised the need to work collectively with other partner countries to support transparent, responsible, and sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development.”

The Quadrilateral, which was revived in 2017, will continue to meet, but India is resisting raising the level beyond the current operational, or joint secretary level. US, Japan and Australia are pushing for a meeting of the Quad in November on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit but India is yet to commit. India reiterated during the talks that it would not want to conflate the Quadrilateral and Indo-Pacific. The reason for this comes from China’s sustained diplomacy with south-east Asian countries in its attempt to show Indo-Pacific to be interchangeable with the Quad.

Full report on www.toi.in

Indrani.Bagchi@timesgroup.com

Courtesy: Times of India: 07 Sep 2018