At the heart of the Indo-Pacific, a region stretching from the eastern coast of Africa through the Indian Ocean and across the vast Pacific, a new era of global competition and cooperation is unfolding. In November 2025, two high-profile gatherings—one in Seoul, South Korea, and the other in Paris and Brest, France—brought together experts, policymakers, and security officials to grapple with the region’s fast-changing dynamics. Their mission: to chart a course through economic, security, technological, and environmental challenges that are reshaping the world’s most pivotal maritime corridor.
The Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) convened an expert seminar on November 20 at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul, gathering leading voices to discuss "Challenges and Issues in the Indo-Pacific Region and Future Cooperation Measures." According to The Asia Business Daily, the event aimed to assess sweeping changes in the Indo-Pacific’s strategic environment and to explore sustainable directions for Korea’s international cooperation. KMI President Cho Jeonghee opened with a stark reminder: “The Indo-Pacific region is a global core axis, home to about 65% of the world’s population and more than 60% of global GDP, as well as the center of international logistics, with half of global maritime cargo passing through. It is a vital hub for maritime transport routes and supply chain competition, while also being at the forefront of geopolitical and geo-economic challenges such as rising sea levels and the melting of Arctic sea ice due to the climate crisis.”
Just days earlier, from November 17 to 21, the Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN) in France hosted the 5th International Session for the Indo-Pacific (SIIP) dialogue, a diplomatic tour de force that welcomed marine officers and security scholars from over 40 countries. According to Professor Peter Kagwanja, a participant and former government advisor in Kenya, the dialogue was “seeking shared responses for strengthening strategic autonomy to promote regional stability in the Indo-Pacific.” The agenda was ambitious: maritime security, disinformation, climate change, organized crime, and terrorism were all on the table.
Both events underscored a central theme: the Indo-Pacific is no longer just a biogeographic term—it is the world’s new strategic center of gravity. The region is where the core interests of the United States and a rising China clash most visibly. The United States and its allies, including Japan, Australia, and India, have formed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue—“the Quad”—as a counterweight to China’s growing influence. Meanwhile, European powers like France and the United Kingdom, as well as regional organizations such as ASEAN, have crafted their own Indo-Pacific strategies, recognizing the region’s centrality to global affairs.
The numbers are staggering. Today, the Indo-Pacific boasts two of the world’s three largest economies: the United States ($25.35 trillion) and China ($19.91 trillion), with Japan not far behind at $4.91 trillion. Projections show that by 2050, four of the world’s top ten economies—China, India, Indonesia, and Japan—will be anchored in this region. The economic stakes are matched by military ones: China’s official military budget in 2025 reached $246 billion, second only to the United States. In April, India and France inked a $7.5 billion deal for 26 Rafale aircraft for the Indian Navy, signaling both growing regional militarization and the importance of strategic partnerships.
But the Indo-Pacific’s story is not just about great-power rivalry. For countries like Kenya, which lies directly on one of the world’s busiest international shipping lanes, the region’s transformation presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Kenya, with an exclusive economic zone spanning 11,691,000 square kilometers (including overseas territories like Réunion and Mayotte), is uniquely positioned to benefit from the region’s marine resources. The country’s estimated potential to produce between 150,000 to 300,000 metric tonnes of fish per year is just one example of the blue economy’s promise. As Professor Kagwanja wrote after attending the SIIP dialogue, “Kenya—and Africa as a whole—must quickly develop an Indo-Pacific strategy or perish!”
The stakes are high. The Indo-Pacific is not only a crossroads of maritime trade and economic power but also a flashpoint for security tensions. The return of Cold War-era geopolitics, fueled by the rise of new alliances and military posturing, has put smaller and middle powers in a delicate position. At the KMI seminar, Cho Wondeuk, Director of the ASEAN-India Research Center, emphasized the need to “expand responsible cooperation based on multilateral and minilateral networks” in the face of a rapidly changing security environment. Ban Giljoo, Director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies, called for “a multi-layered diplomatic and security strategy that regards the oceans as a global public good amid the intensification of a new Cold War structure.”
Concrete examples of cooperation and challenge abound. At the KMI event, Lee Sunmi of the Korea Coast Guard shared cases of combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the North Pacific, underscoring the need for collaboration with the United States, Japan, and ASEAN nations. Kim Minsu, leading the Arctic Route Support Team, highlighted the strategic significance of the newly accessible Arctic route, proposing an integrated maritime strategy that weaves together security, industry, and sustainable development. Meanwhile, Park Sujin of KMI stressed the urgency of tackling sea level rise and marine pollution through “package-type cooperation” linking science, technology, and resources.
Kenya’s diplomatic balancing act was on full display in 2025. On October 29, the country signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement with France covering maritime security, even as it leveraged China’s Belt and Road Initiative for infrastructure investment and maintained its new status as a non-NATO military ally of the United States. According to The Asia Business Daily, participants at the KMI seminar agreed that Korea should position itself as a “middle-power cooperation architect,” pursuing actionable agendas in maritime security, disaster response, supply chains, energy, critical minerals, digital and AI, and climate and environment.
It’s not just about geopolitics and economics. The ocean, as experts at both events emphasized, is the “lung of the planet,” producing half of the Earth’s oxygen and absorbing 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Effective governance of the maritime domain is thus integral to combating climate change—a fact not lost on Kenya, which is seeking strategic partnerships to keep sea lanes open and safe while advancing its climate policies.
As the Indo-Pacific continues to emerge as the world’s fulcrum of economic and strategic power, the choices made by its nations—large and small—will reverberate around the globe. Whether through multilateral cooperation, strategic autonomy, or innovative diplomacy, the region’s future will be shaped by those who recognize both the risks and the opportunities of this new maritime age.