India, July 12 -- India, Japan, and Indonesia as the architectural core of counter-encirclement.

The geopolitical centre of gravity has firmly settled within the waters of the Indo-Pacific. This vast maritime domain, which anchors global trade routes and holds immense resource wealth, has become the primary arena for intense systemic rivalry. At the centre of this tension is China's assertive expansionism, structurally manifested through its "String of Pearls" strategy. By developing a network of military, commercial, and logistical nodes across the Indian Ocean rim-stretching from Gwadar in Pakistan and Hambantota in Sri Lanka to Kyaukphyu in Myanmar-Beijing has sought to engineer a comprehensive maritime encirclement of India while sec...