The Persian Gulf and Indo-Pacific regions are increasingly becoming interconnected, shaping global economic and strategic landscapes. This is being underlined through fostering trade, energy security, and regional stability. The periphery of the Indo-Pacific is indefinable and due to this reason, the Indo-Pacific region has become a theatre for contentions between major powers and littoral nations. Major powers and littoral nations are vying to establish an influential network in this region. The significance of this region is increasing, and the nations are recalibrating their foreign policies to create a zone of influence in this region.
The reiterating narrative amongst scholars of international relations often discusses the limitations or delimitations of the sea/ocean boundaries and their concerned regions. Not only that, the Indo-Pacific region is moving beyond economic, cultural, and historical linkages to include a primary strategic imperative. The increasing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region is leading to changes in the policy framework of several nations which includes the major powers such as the United States, Russia, and Europe along with the middle powers such as India.
Striking a connection between the Persian Gulf and the Indo-Pacific region remains difficult geographically. Still, the Persian Gulf is a strategically significant region that is connected through SLOCs. Even though this is an unconventional way to understand the linkage between the Indo-Pacific and the Persian Gulf region but there also arises a question of whether the external actors consider the Persian Gulf as an extension of the Indo-Pacific.
The changing geopolitical order is straining the already fragile nations of the West Asian region. The regional nations are already struggling to maintain their internal political systems which were threatened by the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, followed by wars in Iraq and Syria and the civil war in Yemen leading to a humanitarian catastrophe. This instability is further affected by changing regional and international order. Even though the nations of the West Asian region have tried to counter these traditional and non-traditional threats; still its regional order is vulnerable to strains from these changing geopolitical scenarios. The West Asian region does not seem to be directly linked to the Indo-Pacific region; however, the West Asian nations have huge maritime boundaries which historically connect them to other Indian Ocean littoral nations. Furthermore, the focus of trade had mostly been focused on the wider Arab world and the West in their foreign policies. However, in contemporary times, geopolitically, the Persian Gulf region has a crucial chokepoint i.e., the Strait of Hormuz connecting it to the Indo-Pacific region and other Sea lanes of Communications (SLOCs) traversing through the wider Indian Ocean region. Moreover, the Persian Gulf region, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea around the Arabian Peninsula are also amongst the most congested and contested maritime transit routes globally. Through this route, the South Asian and Southeast Asian nations are striving to secure energy resources. For example, China’s energy imports from the West Asian region also pass through these waterways. It helps in the sustenance of the growing Chinese economy as well as helps Beijing to establish itself as a significant maritime power in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
It is also difficult to assess who will be the beneficiaries of this amalgamation of the Persian Gulf in the Indo-Pacific region. It remains to be seen whether major regional or world powers stand to lose or gain in case the Indo-Pacific region’s peripheries extend to include the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, the geostrategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region can also affect West Asia’s regional political, economic or security environment. Regional tensions in the Persian Gulf region are not a new phenomenon. However, combined with the rising uncertainty of the international order is resulting in an increasingly strained regional order. This can further affect the fragile balance of the West Asian region.
Though it cannot be ignored that, since historical times, the maritime domain has been a vital space in shaping regional dynamics and the larger security architecture by existing or emerging powers. In this context, the discussions about the linkages between the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca have been established to deliberate on the issues related to the significance of the SLOCs. It is noteworthy that both the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca figure in the list of six major oil transit chokepoints around the world, as identified by the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA). These maritime chokepoints are critically important due to oil and other kinds of trade. They are also extremely vulnerable to acts of piracy and shipping catastrophes. Nearly 50,000 shipping vessels pass through the Strait of Malacca every year. This is because it is the shortest possible transit route between Southeast nations such as China, Japan and South Korea, connecting them with West Asian oil and gas resources.
So, it can be said that the waterways around the world are becoming theatres of geopolitical struggles, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. At the same time, it cannot be ignored that stretching the concept of the Indo-Pacific to extend it to the Persian Gulf region can further agitate the Indo-Pacific region. In the present scenario, the Persian Gulf region is fragmented by territorial disputes, inter-state rivalries, almost dysfunctional regional organisations and the formation of new alliances between old rivals, which can further complicate the Indo-Pacific construct. However, there are chances that the extension of the Indo-Pacific region to the Persian Gulf region could happen in the foreseeable future due to various West Asian nations with stable maritime structures considering a connection with the Indo-Pacific region due to the transit routes traversing through their maritime territories. This is further complicated by the strenuous relations between extra-regional powers such as Russia, China and the United States, which have their individual interests in connecting the Persian Gulf with the Indo-Pacific region. But it remains to be seen how these ideas and interests materialize in future.
The writer is assistant professor, Amity Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Amity University, Noida
(Parts of this paper have been published as book chapter titled “Tracing the Connection: Indo-Pacific & Persian Gulf in India’s Maritime Strategy” in Air Marshal Anil Chopra (ed.), The Great Game in the Indo-Pacific: A Pivot to India (Knowledge World: India, 2021).