India as an Indo-Pacific power has miles to go

Navy's capabilities are not in sync with the country's desired maritime profile

Over the last few days, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar has spoken repeatedly of the Indo-Pacific. Both as the person in charge of our foreign policy and as a scholar of acknowledged strategic understanding, the minister has few equals and it will be useful to identify the four seminal points made in his articulations. One, that the Indo-Pacific is yesterday’s reality, not of tomorrow; two, the environment is predominantly maritime; three, that India had to be a key player in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and four, that we had to bring our Indo-Pacific interests in sync with other