Thayer Consultancy Background Briefing:

ABN # 65 648 097 123

Trumps Free and Open Indo-
Pacific Region
Carlyle A. Thayer
November 9, 2017

We request your assessment of Trump's increased use of the phrase Indo-Pacific,

whether it is significant that he uses that instead of Asia-Pacific and whether we
have enough specifics yet to see a detailed Indo-Pacific policy emerging from his
administration?
ANSWER:
The use of the term Into-Pacific is not new, Trump appears to be giving it a new spin.
I have had a long association with the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies
(CDSS) at the Australian Defence College. CDSS is the highest defence course in
Australia where senior officers go up to one star rank.
After three years with the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii (US
Pacific Command) I returned to Australia to co-ordinate the senior course at CDSS for
three years (2002-04). One major section was on the Asia-Pacific. Since then I have
been invited back as a visiting fellow to introduce the Asia-Pacific bloc. Around 4-5
years ago this was retitled Indo-Pacific, the Indo-Asia-Pacific and now back to Indo-
Pacific.
To cut this short, Indo-Pacific was a term used by US and Australian defence officials
to identify the increasing emergence and importance of the Indo-Pacific as a
maritime region linking the Western Pacific with the Indian Ocean. Part of this was
due to India's emergence and a shift from Look East to Act East. Also the U.S. Pacific
Command embraces an area of operations that includes India in the west to Japan in
the east.
This year I went back to CDSS and sure enough the academic block on the region was
titled Indo-Pacific.
In 2007, then Prime Minister Abe began to advocate a "free and open" Indo-Pacific
with a special focus on relations with India. Both India and Japan have revived this
term with Abe's return as prime minister. Abe revived this concept in 2017 in
discussions with Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Now to fast forward to the Trump Administration: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's
visit to India resulted in the revival of the Indo-Pacific as a geographic region.
Trump's use of "free and open" has been adopted to further his aim of negotiating
better bilateral trade deals.
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Congressed passed a law in 1986 requiring each new Administration to submit a

national security strategy (NSS) within 150 days of coming into office. This deadline
has not been met by the Trump Administration.
The Trump Administration's NSS is still a work in progress and the latest information
is it will be completed by the first half of 2018 at the earliest. Other US regional
security strategies as derivative of the NSS, I fully expect the NSS and the later US
Maritime Strategy will use the term Indo-Pacific. This was earlier reflected in
Australia's Defence White Paper.
Historical note: although the term Asia-Pacific is used, such as APEC, the US
invariably refers to itself as a Pacific power (whereas China argues the US is an
outside power). When Asia was used in the Indo-Asia-Pacific iteration, it was to
overcome criticism that it omitted the Asian landmass - to wit China. But in reality
the US alliance system is maritime focused and the increasing partnership with India
lends itself to privileging the term Into-Pacific.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, Trumps Free and Open Indo-Pacific Region,
Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, November 9, 2017. All background briefs are
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Thayer Consultancy provides political analysis of current regional security issues and
other research support to selected clients. Thayer Consultancy was officially
registered as a small business in Australia in 2002.