Indo-Pacific Strategy

The Indo-Pacific Strategy refers to a family of national and multilateral policy frameworks that conceptualize the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean as one interconnected strategic region, rather than treating "Asia-Pacific" and "South Asia" as separate theatres. The term gained traction in the 2010s, popularized in part by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, whose 2016 TICAD VI speech in Nairobi articulated a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" (FOIP) vision built on freedom of navigation, the rule of law, and connectivity.

Several states have since published formal strategies:

• The United States released its Indo-Pacific Strategy in February 2022 under the Biden administration, following the Trump administration's 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report by the Department of Defense.
• Japan continues to develop its FOIP concept, updated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March 2023.
• The European Union adopted its Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in September 2021.
• France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Korea have each issued their own Indo-Pacific documents between 2018 and 2023.
• ASEAN published the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) in June 2019, emphasizing centrality, inclusivity, and economic cooperation rather than strategic competition.

Common themes across these documents include maintaining freedom of navigation (particularly in the South China Sea), securing supply chains, supporting infrastructure alternatives to China's Belt and Road Initiative, strengthening alliances and minilateral groupings such as the Quad (US, Japan, India, Australia) and AUKUS (Australia, UK, US), and addressing climate, maritime, and cyber security.

Critics argue the framework is implicitly designed to contain China, which has rejected the term and prefers "Asia-Pacific." Proponents counter that it reflects genuine economic and security interdependence between the two oceans, and note that India, Indonesia, and ASEAN states have embraced inclusive variants.