What’s in an abbreviation? An entire ocean.

In 2018, when the United States expanded the USPACOM, the official name of its Pacific military command that has overseen security across more than half the world since World War II to USINDOPACOM, it indicated a pinnacle of sorts for US-India relations.

Critics warned that the Indian Ocean Region and India’s prominence as the main security provider and first responder in the area would be pushed into the shadows by the pomp and circumstance of the grandly titled “Indo-Pacific”. But since an aggressive China was the common denominator for all involved in the new nomenclature, hopes and enthusiasm were high.

India was dealing with China’s aggression along its 3,500-km-plus land border. New Delhi was also concerned by the rapid spread of Beijing’s Belt-and-Road Initiative across the Indian Ocean, especially through countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Maldives, which, up to then, were considered close regional allies.

Both the US and Japan (the latter was the original author of the concept of an “Indo-Pacific”) were determined to keep Chinese expansionism and aggression in the South China Sea in check.

They were also concerned about the shipping lanes through the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean, since 80% of the world’s energy and crucial mineral supplies use them. The USINDOPACOM intended to ensure that China’s surging marine presence in the Indian Ocean Region did not give it the capacity to choke off the Strait and hold the world hostage.

For India, the USINDOPACOM was also an opportunity to deepen its own defence ties with the US.

Key co-production agreements were signed. Inter-operability and intelligence sharing were boosted by pacts like the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. A new 10-year defence partnership was initialled, as was a landmark agreement for General Electric to produce jet engines in India for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft. There was no shortage of items of strategic alignment.

For all that and in barely eight years, relations between the US and India have reached a new low.

US President Donald Trump has been unpredictable and hostile towards India. Riled by India’s defence ties with Russia, and its oil imports from that country, he has slammed New Delhi with debilitating tariffs.........

© Scroll.in