This year began with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov criticising the idea of the Indo-Pacific at the Raisina Dialogue, calling it a “divisive approach” to disrupt existing regional structures and contain China’s influence in the region. Arguing that India was “smart enough to understand the trap,” he said the United States (US) Indo-Pacific ploy was an attempt to “reconfigure the existing structures” and to move away from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-centric consensus. Read More…