FOIP (Free and Open Indo-Pacific)

Free and Open Indo-Pacific is a strategic concept promoting freedom of navigation, open sea lanes, and rules-based order across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe articulated it in 2016, and the United States adopted it in its 2017 National Security Strategy and 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report; Australia and India echo it, partly through the Quad. For shipping, FOIP frames the political contest over chokepoints from the Malacca Strait to the South China Sea, where naval activity and gray-zone pressure shape war-risk and routing decisions.