Indo-Pacific

[in-doh-puh-sif-ik]

adjective

1. of or relating to the areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans off the coast of southeast Asia.

noun

1. a proposed linguistic family including all the non-Austronesian languages of the Pacific peoples.

Indo-Pacific

adjective

1. of or relating to the region of the Indian and W Pacific Oceans off the coast of SE Asia

noun

1. a hypothetical family of languages relating the languages of New Guinea other than Malayo-Polynesian. Tentative affiliations with Malayo-Polynesian or Australian languages have been suggested

Word History and Origins

Origin of Indo-Pacific¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

The Pentagon is reviewing a defense pact with the U.K. and Australia, throwing into doubt a strategic partnership that aims to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines and deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

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Aukus is “not necessarily over,” says Philip Shetler-Jones, an expert on Indo-Pacific security at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

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SYDNEY—Australia is boosting its defense budget and rethinking its defense plans as strategic competition between the U.S. and China heats up in the Indo-Pacific region.

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This enabled the French to maintain military bases on every continent—more than 8,000 troops are stationed in overseas territories, including around 2,500 in the Indo-Pacific—and to maintain the world’s second-largest exclusive economic zone, after the U.S.

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France is rushing security reinforcements to its overseas territory of New Caledonia, a crucial foothold for Paris in the Indo-Pacific, after days of violent riots that have led to the deaths of at least five people and raised difficult questions over the archipelago’s future and France’s broader role in the region.

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