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OPINION JULY 17, 2026 | The Indian Eye 10

The Indo-Pacific without

the Indo: Strategic

Consequences for India

The retirement of ‘Indo’ from a military command is a symbol, not a rupture. But symbols carry information,

and this one says something real: American strategy is narrowing towards a Pacific deterrence problem in
which India’s geography matters less than it did when the Indo-Pacific was first conceived

PRIYANSHU AGRAWAL

n 16 June 2026, the Pentagon
retired a name it had carried
Ofor eight years. U.S. Indo-Pa-
cific Command reverted to its older
title, U.S. Pacific Command, and De-
fense Secretary Pete Hegseth marked
the occasion tersely on social media:
“U.S. Pacific Command is back.” The
‘Indo’ in Indo-Pacific had been, more
than anything, an American acknowl-
edgement of India’s centrality to its
Asia strategy. Dropping it raises a
question New Delhi cannot afford to
dismiss: can the Indo-Pacific remain
strategically coherent if India is no
longer central to it, and does the shift
point to something deeper than a bu-
reaucratic housekeeping exercise?
The Making of the Indo-Pacific

he Indo-Pacific was an Indi-
an idea before it became an
TAmerican strategy. The con-
cept’s modern geopolitical usage
is widely attributed to Indian naval
strategist Gurpreet Khurana, whose The Biden administration’s 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy made the investment explicit: it pledged to “support India’s continued rise and regional leadership” (File photo)
2007 paper described the arc linking
Indian Ocean energy routes to East creasing connectivity between the In- “support India’s continued rise and ed India to be part of a deterrence
Asian manufacturing centres as a dis- dian and Pacific oceans”. The name regional leadership”. It named it first architecture aimed at China; New
tinct strategic theatre. Japan’s Prime was not neutral cartography. It was a among the leading regional partners Delhi wanted technological and geo-
Minister Shinzo Abe gave it political signal that the United States consid- Washington would cultivate beyond political gains without any obligation
momentum in his address to the Indi- ered the Indian Ocean as relevant to its five treaty alliances (Japan, South to fight alongside the United States.
an Parliament the same year, describ- the China competition as the West- Korea, Australia, the Philippines and The Indo-Pacific worked partly be-
ing the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a ern Pacific. Thailand). The strategy defined the cause it left this ambiguity intact.
“Confluence of the Two Seas” Why India Became Central region as stretching “from our Pacific Is the Indo Disappearing?
The first Trump administra- coastline to the Indian Ocean”, push-
tion elevated this from geography ndia mattered to this construct ing the western boundary further he signals from Washington
to doctrine. The 2017 National Se- because of its landmass and posi- than the 2017 document. since January 2025 suggest a
curity Strategy defined the region Ition. It anchored the western end The Quad became the flagship Tgenuine, if still uneven, recali-
as stretching “from the west coast of the map, commanded sea lanes expression of this alignment. At the bration. The second Trump adminis-
of India to the western shores of through which a large share of global Wilmington Summit of September tration’s approach to Asia is organ-
the United States” and placed it at energy and trade passes, and offered 2024, the four leaders declared them- ised around the Western Hemisphere
the top of US regional priorities. In the only large democratic power in selves “more strategically aligned first and Pacific deterrence second.
May 2018, Defense Secretary Jim Asia capable of independently com- than ever before”, representing The National Security Strategy of
Mattis renamed Pacific Command plicating Chinese ambitions over the “nearly two billion people and over November 2025 primarily referenc-
to Indo-Pacific Command. The De- long term. The Biden administration’s one-third of global GDP”. Yet the es India in the South Asian context,
partment of Defense announcement 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy made the partnership always rested on a con- urging New Delhi to “contribute
stated the change reflected “the in- investment explicit: it pledged to cealed tension. Washington want- Continued on next page... >>

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