India is committed to maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, while working with like-minded partners to deal with common challenges, including threats to maritime security, India Taipei Association Director-General Gourangalal Das said.
India is a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) with Australia, Japan and the US. On Sept. 24, US President Joe Biden hosted the first-ever in-person Quad leaders’ summit at the White House, which included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Das discussed India’s views and contributions to the Indo-Pacific region’s security in an interview with the Taipei Times and its sister paper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“The term Indo-Pacific underlines the inherent connectivity and indivisibility of the interests of the littoral states of the two oceans, Indian and the Pacific. The popularity of the idea reflects not only contemporary geopolitics, but also the reality of globalization,” he said.
“Unless we conceptualize them together, we will not be able to respond to, and make the best of, the evolving trends in this part of the world,” he added.
“Indo-Pacific is our homeland. Whether to concentrate on our east or west, whether to focus on our immediate or extended neighborhood is a false choice,” Das said.
“Today, East Asia and the Pacific are the most dynamic arena of India’s global engagement as a result of three decades of intensive economic cooperation, giving this region the highest heft and priority for our well-being,” he said.
“The Indo-Pacific being our home and source of our economic vitality, India has a deep and legitimate interest in maintaining its free, open and inclusive character, in preserving peace, security and prosperity, and in promoting respect for international law in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“We have pursued bilateral and minilateral cooperation with like-minded partners to deal with common challenges — ranging from natural disasters to piracy and threats to maritime security,” he added.
A minilateral initiative would involve just three to four countries, he said.
“India is also working to develop a positive agenda to enhance human-centric security in the Indo-Pacific, whether to foster connectivity, to harness our oceans, to fight pandemic[s] or to bring resilience to our supply chains,” he said.
Taiwanese officials have expressed hope that Taiwan could be involved in the Quad mechanism.
While that has not yet happened, the importance of peace and security in the Taiwan Strait was one of the issues discussed in a virtual meeting among Quad countries on Aug. 12.
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