It was not geographical illiteracy that led U.S. President Donald Trump to refer repeatedly to the "Indo-Pacific" region when he journeyed recently through what is generally known as the Asia-Pacific area. Nor was it simply a desire to put an increasingly domineering and expansive China in its place.
The U.S. leader's use of the term "Indo-Pacific" signaled that he has signed on to the plan by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, or AAGC. Like Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, the AAGC has geostrategic as well as economic significance -- and that appeals to Trump.
