AAGC and Economic Prosperity in Indo-Pacific
Given the untapped potential for growth and development in Asia and Africa, there exists ample scope for bilateral and triangular cooperation among countries in the framework of Free Open Inclusive Indo-Pacific (FOIP). While globalization, trade and finan
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AAGC and Economic Prosperity in Indo-Pacific Sachin Chaturvedi and Priyadarshi Dash
Introduction The Indo-Pacific region has assumed importance as a source of global prosperity and peace in recent years. The geographical spread covered by the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and the littoral countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Africa and the Pacific regions including the Pacific island countries present vast opportunities for economic growth, diversification, and cooperation. All major countries in the Indo-Pacific region such as the United States, Japan, ASEAN countries, Australia, EU, and India have formulated their foreign policy strategies for scaling up their engagement in the region (Government of Japan 2019; Government of Japan 2018; European Commission 2018; Australian Government 2019; Australian Government 2017). Japan has propagated the idea of Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) whereas India broadened the concept further by adding “inclusiveness” into FOIP. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2018, Prime Minister Modi emphasized that India’s own engagement in the Indo- Pacific region would be based on five S’ in Hindi: Sammaan (respect); Samvad (dialogue); Sahyog (cooperation), Shanti (peace), and Samridhi (prosperity). Both ASEAN and the US vision for Indo-Pacific clearly state the focus on energy, infrastructure and connectivity, digital economy, reciprocal trade, promoting business partnerships, and other areas of sectoral cooperation (ASEAN Secretariat 2019; Government of USA 2019). India’s Act East Policy and Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative integrate the vision of free, open, transparent, and inclusivity as core principles of Indo-Pacific (Government of India 2019). There is greater convergence among S. Chaturvedi · P. Dash (B) Director General & Assistant Professor, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, India e-mail: [email protected] S. Chaturvedi e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. Chaturvedi et al. (eds.), Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5550-3_2
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the different models of Indo-Pacific cooperation from the perspective of the scope of bilateral and transnational engagements. The prevailing contestations in the waters of this region have given rise to security and strategic formulations. However, in the last few years, the Japan-India partnership has given the region an important perspective on international development. Further, India and Japan have been vocal in promoting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific for peace and prosperity in the region. FOIP is a joint initiative by India and Japan for cooperation in Africa in various development projects (Cannon 2018). Other countries that are likely candidates for FOIP are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Many countries are weighing the merits of joining FOIP (Hiep 2018). FOIP sets a vision for the common future of the people in the Indo-Pacific region. Further, the region covering two oceans—the Indi
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