Indian Prime minister proposes Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative

News:Indian Prime Minister has proposed an Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative during his address at the 14th East Asia Summit.

Facts:

About Indo Pacific initiative:

• The Indo-Pacific is an integrated region that combines the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and the land masses that surround them.
• The main objective of the Indo Pacific initiative will be to achieve safe, secure and a stable maritime domain.
• The initiative aims to achieve this by creating partnerships among interested states by sustainably using marine resources.
• The focus areas of the initiative will be to (a)Enhance maritime security (b)Sustainable use of marine resources (c)Disaster prevention & management (d)Capacity-building and (e)Cooperation in trade and maritime transport.
• The initiative is considered by the experts as an incremental step to the Shangri La dialogue.

India’s Role in the Indo-Pacific region:

• India has moved from being a reluctant maritime power to a conscious one.
• India has also sought to align its Indo-Pacific strategy with national maritime interests and has developed partnerships accordingly.
• India has been conducting many naval exercises with the United States, the countries of ASEAN, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
• India has also set up an Indo-Pacific division in the foreign office.The new division is intended to give a coherent architecture to the Indo Pacific policy.

Additional information:

About East Asia Summit:

• The East Asia Summit(EAS) was established in 2005.It is a forum of 18 countries.
• The summit has evolved as a forum for strategic dialogue and cooperation on political, security and economic issues of common regional concerns.
• The EAS comprises the ten member states of the ASEAN countries along with 8 members Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.
• The concept of an East Asia Grouping was first promoted in 1991 by then Malaysian Prime Minister,Mahathir bin Mohamad. 
• The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia in 2005.India is a founding member of the East Asia Summit.

About Shangri-La Dialogue(SLD):

• The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is an intergovernmental security forum held annually by an independent think tank,the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.
• The Shangri-La Dialogue has evolved into a key strategic gathering of the Asia-Pacific region.It is attended by defense ministers,permanent heads of ministries and military chiefs of Asia-Pacific states.