India, March 25 -- For India's foreign and security policy, which of the two areas is more important: The Indian Ocean stretching from the East African shores to the Indian subcontinent - or the vast region called the Indo-Pacific? Until the first decade of the present century, the most acceptable answer was: The former. However, this changed in the second decade as experts and media were fascinated by the Indo-Pacific as a new geopolitical construct.

The Indo-Pacific region extending from Kilimanjaro to Hollywood became the buzzword. It remained so until the combined effect of the wars in Ukraine (since February 2022) and West Asia (since October 2023) diverted global attention to European and West Asian theatres, thus reducing the sali...