Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

Did no one tell President Trump who sent shock waves around the world when he claimed that he would ‘destroy a civilization overnight’ that the Straits of Hormuz controlled and bordered by Iran, is an integral part of the vast Indian Ocean’s energy superhighway? The Sea Silk Route of yore connected the maritime regions and heartlands of the Supercontinent of Asia for millennia – long before the United States was thought of, let alone came into existence a mere 250 years ago.

Did no one tell Trump that blockading Indian Ocean sea lanes in the Asian 21^st Century was a very bad idea– for everyone? Indeed, do Trump’s advisors have a grasp of Asian and Indian Ocean World history and geography? Or, are they sold on their own propaganda about a non-existent Indo-Pacific”, a US intelligence Think Tank neologism contrived to Divide and Rule the Indian Ocean World?

The Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea are all in the Indian Ocean and integral to the ancient and modern maritime Silk Route that ran from China in the East to South Africa in the West. Indeed, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for Global Connectivity and infrastructure development traverse parts of the maritime sea Silk Routes forged through Monsoon rains and winds, which long ago knit the regions of the Supercontinent of Asia with East Africa and the peninsular of Europe.

Many World Systems historians and theorists who study the long arc of history have noted that we are once again in the Asian Century. The American Century is almost done and dusted. Still, President Trump is putting up a valiant fight to save face and defend the exorbitantly privileged dollar by oil grabbing and seeking to controlling energy trade routes. To succeed, Trump and his Secretaries of State and War, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegeseth, would do well to learn some Asian and Indian Ocean history and geography. Asian Philosophy may help them come to terms with the fact that nothing is permanent.

Partition of the Indian Ocean World to Divide and Rule: No Indo-Pacific

Trump appears to have stumbled into an Indian Ocean World whose history and geography his advisors had little knowledge of — notwithstanding attempts by US intelligence think tanks to Partition the Indian Ocean via the ‘Indo-Pacific’ neologism, ironically with the collaboration of Indian counterparts in Delhi

The ‘Indo-Pacific’ neologism connotes the Partition of the ancient and modern Indian Ocean WORLD in order to divide, rule and recolonize it at the center–with the eastern reach of the Indian Ocean yoked to the American Pacific. To divide and rule the Indian Ocean Sea Lanes that European maritime empires fought over in order to loot the wealth of Asian Civilizations, the US has created a layered India-centered Security Architecture: The QUAD in the Eastern Indian Ocean and 12U2 in the western Indian Ocean, of which more later.

The QUAD and I2U2 are in turn supervised and controlled by the White AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) Nuclear Submarine Club, the rump of the vanished British Empires’ Old Commonwealth.

Together the QUAD, I2U2, and AUKUS are an elaborate security architecture to contain the Rise of Asia, particularly China in the Asian Century. While China remains the focus, Iran and other Asian Powers, including Russia in the Indian Ocean are also targets.

The Janus-faced behavior of India with the US dominated QUAD and I2U2, on the one hand and BRICS on the other hand, as India tries to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare, means that it has all but lost face and betrayed the Global South which it once aspired to lead.

Let us be crystal clear at this time: There is no such thing as the ‘Indo-Pacific’; the QUAD, I2U2 and AUKUS notwithstanding.

Moreover, the United States which is in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has No Right to bring its environment-polluting war machine to the Indian Ocean World, which belongs to littoral States of the Indian Ocean who were part of the world’s oldest and wealthiest maritime trade system. Nor does the US have the right under the guise of its free and open Indo-Pacific neologism to control IO sea lanes and intra-Asian energy shipments.

The Indian Ocean World was colonized, partitioned, divided and ruled in for three centuries by competing European maritime empires skilled in weaponizing ethno-religious identity politics. While subsequent de-colonization, independence and national liberation struggles swept Asia and Africa in the aftermath of World War 2, the Indian Ocean remained more or less colonized, controlled and occupied by UK, France and later US military bases, given technological advantage.

The Indian Ocean remains to be decolonized at this time. However, India has become irrelevant in the struggle of Indian Ocean countries to liberate their seas and marine resources, fisheries and seabed minerals, from Euro-American occupation and exploitation.

India once partitioned by Britain and now, dubbed the BRICS spoiler, has been conspicuously silent about Trump’s excursion to oil grab in Iran and blockade in the Indian Ocean sea lanes for Energy Colonialism. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Tel Aviv to flag off the illegal Israeli-US war on Iran.

No doubt Delhi is now smarting given the prominence of Pakistan in Islamabad Peace negotiations. Just deserts.

Enter China Exit India

Modi’s India with Foreign Minister Jaishankar focused on perpetual colonial era conflicts with Northern neighbors, China and Pakistan, are widely perceived to have betrayed India’s claims to be a leader of the Global South, as well as, the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which declared the Indian Ocean as a ‘Zone of Peace’.  

Rather, New Delhi has led the rush to militarize the Indian Ocean disregarding the environmental impacts of militarization particularly on impoverished littoral countries and fisheries communities.

Is it not time now for Delhi to move on from its bittern conflicts and rivalries with Pakistan and China, which are no doubt fanned by Euro-American divide and rule neocolonial machinations, in order to enter the Asian 21^st Century?

Instead, land-locked and brain-washed Delhi appears to have given step-motherly treatment not only to the Global South but also to the interests of its Southern States – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka which face the Indian Ocean.

Intent on containing China in partnership with USA, India appears to have relinquished the interests of her Southern Dravidian States and smaller Indian Ocean countries as well as the South Asia neighbourhood, giving precedence to America’s neo-imperialist security architecture in the Indian Ocean, over fisheries livelihoods and de-colonizing the Indian Ocean which is looted by distant water fishing states, particularly France, Spain, Japan, EU, Taiwan, China.

India has prioritized security alliances with the US and its proxies in East and West Asia, and membership of QUAD (Australia, Japan, India and USA), and the I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and USA), a US security architecture designed to Partition the Indian Ocean world, and divide and rule it.

The India-US security collaboration moreover appears to sustain Petrodollar energy colonialism and stymies the attempts of BRICS and Global South countries to de-dollarize and escape the Eurobond Debt trap that is being deepened with IMF reforms of Energy Sector in countries like Sri Lanka, in turn deepening Energy Colonialism.

The question now is: Will Xi’s China, the Superpower located at the far-eastern corner of the Indian Ocean World, understandably averse to carrying the mantle of ‘Superpower’ unlike Trump’s America, intervene with other Asian civilizational powers to help the crashing, flailing, violent and dangerous US hegemon come in for a soft landing and exit the Indian Ocean with its Armada?

Remarkably, the I2U2 in the Western Indian Ocean, the QUAD to the East, and the AUKUS Nuclear Sub Club to contain the Rise of Asia and ensure Christian Zionist hegemony in the Indian Ocean World seem to be going nowhere at this time– much like BRICS with its Saffron tinted partner, Modi’s India, the current Chair?