November 15, 2017

Recently, the term "Indo-Pacific" has often been mentioned by senior US officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and it was brought up when US President Donald Trump talked with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This indicates it is not a transient idea, but will become a strategy of the Trump administration. Although the US government hasn't detailed what the Indo-Pacific concept entails, some observers infer that it may be Trump's new strategy to replace his predecessor's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific when it comes to dealing with China.

The Indo-Pacific is not a new term the Trump administration coined. In the 1960s, Australian scholars started using it in regional security. Since 2010, scholars in Australian, Indian, Japanese and US think tanks have used it as a geopolitical concept. As the Barack Obama administration was pushing forward its rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, the Indo-Pacific idea was sidelined, only being mentioned by then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. 

The core of the Indo-Pacific concept is to establish an "Asian NATO" centered on an alliance between the US, Japan, India and Australia that aims to counter China's rise and its increasing presence in the Indian Ocean. 

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