By Distinguished Fellow Captain Sarabjeet S Parmar
A few decades ago, the very thought of Australia, India and Indonesia coming together would have raised quite a few eyebrows. The veils of mistrust and scepticism have since reduced significantly, and the three nations find themselves in a middle power maritime trilateral with influence that stretches from the east coast of Africa, across the Indian Ocean, through Southeast Asia up to the western fringes of the Pacific Ocean.
Together the three nations are geographically positioned to cover all eleven choke points within this area with Indonesia, unenviably sitting across six of them. Prominent amongst these Straits are the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Strait of Hormuz, Malacca, Singapore, Sunda and Lombok.
The Australia-India-Indonesia middle power trilateral holds immense potential and successful results would reaffirm the commitment of these three nations in advancing shared values and working towards a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.