ABSTRACT
“A confluence of two seas” – an idea mooted by Shinzo Abe during his speech in the Indian Parliament in 2007 – has evolved into an Indo-Pacific construct. Many countries have endorsed this concept and have unveiled their own Indo-Pacific doctrine. India and Japan remain an integral part of this geostrategic and geo-economic construct. Leading democracies, including the USA, India, Australia, and Japan, have come together and forged partnerships. In order to implement these aspects, different groups have been formed. For example, to implement the security aspect of the Indo-Pacific strategy, there exists the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – a consultative grouping consisting of Australia, India, Japan and the USA. To implement the economic and trade aspect, the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum for Prosperity – a grouping of 14 countries has been formed. In addition to this, Australia, India, and Japan have launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative to foster economic cooperation among themselves and ease their dependence on China. Similarly, in the field of infrastructure cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, there are bilateral and multilateral initiatives to match China’s infrastructure project Belt and Road Initiative.
