The news that in November 2020 the Netherlands, a relatively small country of the European Union (EU), had issued its own official strategy on the Indo-Pacific region, generated much discussion around the world. The Netherlands was the third European country, after France (2018) and Germany (2020), to issue a comprehensive view of this new geography in strategic terms. These decisions underscore the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific maritime geography over the next decades as the centre of gravity of global politics and economics. At the core of the Indo-Pacific lies India, the world’s largest democracy. An emerging trade partner for the EU, India is also establishing itself as a security provider for the essential maritime trade routes that link Asia with Europe. As the European Union has recently started to look beyond China, labeling it as a