Regional Integration in the Indo-Pacific: Connectivity, Cooperation, and New Supply-Chain Linkages

Introduction Opportunities and disruptions arising in the Indo-Pacific region can be addressed through economic cooperation strategies that can recognise and include different stages of industrial development in countries in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe, as well as the United States (US). The Indo-Pacific economic architecture responds to the different policy and plan needs of developing and developed parts of Asia and the Pacific. Along with the need for achieving high and sustained growth in developing countries and least developed countries in the region, there is greater recognition for ensuring equitable, spatially even, and inclusive economic growth amongst all stakeholders. It is often said that change is a recognition of and adaptation to new needs. The Asia-Pacific represented the post-war construct of the economic rise and institutional maturing in several countries in East and Southeast Asia. The phenomenal economic gains of the Asian Tigers, the political and economic success of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) community, and the growing importance of the Pacific Island countries all contributed to the successful construct of economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. During this phase, the US and, to a lesser degree, the European Union (EU), were important guarantors of the strategic and economic interests of most countries in the region.