Institutions Under Indo-Pacific Should Evolve After Practical Cooperation Strengthened: Official

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) India looks at the Indo-Pacific from a purely strategic perspective and institutions under the concept should follow once practical cooperation has been strengthened, a senior Indian diplomat said on Monday.

Vikram Doraiswami, Additional Secretary (IO & Summits), Ministry of External Affairs, said that going forward India hopes to maximise opportunities and have constructive dialogue on the Indo-Pacific.

"Do we need a secretariat and a structure, perhaps further down the road. The direction that we are taking as India on the Indo-Pacific concept, we have attempted to try and set ourselves in a practical mould where we could address sense of smaller countries that there should be something in it that is more than just concept," he said at an Observer Research Foundation (ORF) event here.

"We are looking at it from a purely geopolitical, strategic perspective by broadening the concept to include economics, development and environment issues which are of immediate and relevant interest to countries, including us," Doraiswami said.

He said the Indian side is also set to make presentations to East Asia Summit partners at a workshop in Chennai on February 6-7.

"Broadly we see a convergence of ideas on the key principles (of the Indo-Pacific). There is increasing interest in countries in Africa and and the Western Ocean region in the concept," the Indian official said.

He said institutionalisation of the concept could follow once practical cooperation is strengthened.

"I would give a shout-out to ASEAN for the way they have found practical principles that would hold the countries of the region together, reduce avenues for contestations and increase openings, partnerships of cooperation... eventually evolved into institutions," he said.

"We have the opportunity to utilise this new idea and take it (the Indo-Pacific) forward practically with the intention of eventually leading to institutions. Institution building, however, need not be a goal that you set upfront. Ideally, in our view, it should be evolutionary," Doraiswami said.

Later at a panel discussion, Abraham Denmark, Director Asia Program, Wilson Center, US, said, "Dividing the world into different regions is inherently artificial yet needed by bureaucracy. The fact that Asia-Pacific was labelled as Indo-Pacific didn't bring India into the limelight as the key actor. India was always the key player in this region."

Prof Alexander Lomanov, Deputy Director, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russia, said his country is worried that the Indo-Pacific concept will not bring integration, but disintegration, division and further misunderstanding.

China is focused on development whereas Indo-Pacific is focusing on stability and security. China is emphasising on joint construction, whereas the Indo-Pacific is aiming at building alliances and growing division lines, he said.

The discussion on the aims and objectives of the Indo-Pacific comes days after Russia and the US sparred over the terminology of the concept at the Raisina Dialogue.

In his address at the dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had strongly criticised the US-led Indo-Pacific initiative, calling it a "divisive approach" to disrupt existing regional structures and contain China's influence in the region.

The US and India had said the concept was not aimed at excluding any country or containing anyone, and it was a "principled vision".

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