Who rules the watery expanse of the Indo-Pacific?

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“Hic sunt dracones” (“Here are the dragons”) was how cartographers in the 16th century wrote about the vast expanse of the Indo-Pacific. This shows that the area between the Indian east coast and the American west coast was a white spot for the world rulers. Nobody was interested.

Today: the opposite. The superpowers of America and China vie for the favor of the approximately four billion people living in the Indo-Pacific region. Much of the world’s traded goods are shipped through the expanses of water of the region that covers more than half of our globe.

Dangerous financial injections from Beijing

And while Europe is still looking for a strategy to deal with the world region, Beijing and Washington are getting serious. Xi Jinping (69) and Joe Biden (80) compete here for influence and new friends as if everything is on the line. The Indo-Pacific resembles a geopolitical network party with two competing hosts.

Host country China, which with its clash of arms (see Taiwan) makes it clear that things can be done differently if people wish to do so, has an attractive offer at first sight: fast economic aid without asking too many questions. Sri Lanka, for example, has taken the bait – and saw at a second glance that the cash injections were piling up a terrible national debt. As a result, China canceled the island nation’s debts and in return gained control of the country’s largest port.

Host country America is a bit stingier. The free trade agreements many Indo-Pacific countries have been hoping for for years are nowhere to be seen on the distant horizon. America promotes this with all kinds of vague initiatives (such as the promise to create a “free and open Indo-Pacific”).

India takes the third way

India, the largest country in the world since April 15 and traditionally the most demanding guest at the Indo-Pacific Party, ignores all this. The world’s biggest problems – climate change, pandemics and terrorism – can only be solved if everyone tackles them together, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 72, recently said. Choosing the Chinese path or the American dream is as worthless to India as it is to many other Indo-Pacific countries.

The Indo-Pacific will remain a buffer zone for decades to come: united in indecision, ears open to offers and deals from left and right. Unlike Switzerland. Just a lot bigger.

Source: Blick