Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Shanahan summarized the main points of the Pentagon’s newly released “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” during the Shangri-La Dialogue forum in Singapore over the weekend, but the document itself contains many other important details that he failed to mention, all of which pertain to the United States’ implicit goal of containing China. The…
Somewhat surprisingly, tiny Sri Lanka has emerged as the loudest voice in South Asia opposing the “Indo-Pacific” concept that New Delhi and Washington are jointly pursuing, pointing out how it’s “aimed at restraining China and even the Greater Eurasia by creating military unions between countries”, but the strong statement issued by the Sri Lankan Ambassador…
Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov strongly spoke out against the US’ so-called “Indo-Pacific” concept that’s recently become very popular among Indian strategists, remarking that it’s ”artificially imposed” and conditioned on containing China. From “Conspiracy Theory” To Strategic Fact Routinely dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” by hyper-jingoist Indian commentators, none other than Russia’s top diplomat Sergei…
In March 2018, The Heritage Foundation, in partnership with three leading think tanks from Australia, India and Japan, held the fifth iteration of its “Quad-Plus Dialogue” in Tokyo, Japan. Inaugurated in 2013, this unique Track 1.5 dialogue was designed as a forum for think tank and government representatives from the four democracies to discuss common…
On May 30, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattisannounced that the Pacific Command was being renamed as the Indo-Pacific Command. Thus the Pentagon’s largest (in a geographical sense) command has grown even more gigantic. The new designation is being introduced gradually, seeing as not many announcements have been made about the command’s reorganization, but in…
The US military rechristened its Pacific Command to the Indo-Pacific Command as a means of strongly signaling its growing interest in India and its eponymous ocean. The importance of this development shouldn’t be underestimated because it sets the strategic basis for the US’ 21st-century policy of “containing China”. The People’s Republic depends just as much…
