US maintains plan for expansion in Indian Ocean despite setback in Iran — Kobyakov

Eastern Economic ForumUS maintains plan for expansion in Indian Ocean despite setback in Iran — Kobyakov According to Anton Kobyakov, Russia's opponents are developing a concept to create a unified region around the Indian Ocean, linked by some sort of free trade zone, in order to advance bloc-based military and political interestsMOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Despite the setback in Iran, the US administration is maintaining its plans for expansion in the Indian Ocean region, Russian Presidential Adviser and Executive Secretary of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov said in an interview with TASS ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum. According to Kobyakov, Russia's opponents are developing a concept to create a unified region around the Indian Ocean, linked by some sort of free trade zone, in order to advance bloc-based military and political interests. "Since June this year, the US Indo-Pacific Command, which had existed since 2018, has returned to its customary Pacific format; the Indian Ocean has once again been handed over to the Cold War-era relic known as the Central Command (CENTCOM)," he said. "But this does not mean that plans for continental expansion have been shelved. The setback in Iran simply convinced the Pentagon that the country is self-sufficient as a forward line of the Eurasian security system; hence the idea of separating the theaters of military operations targeting Iran and China once again," Kobyakov added. According to him, Southeast Asia is a key region from the standpoint of military and political stability because transit routes for energy supplies to rapidly developing Asian countries, primarily China, run through the region. ASEAN is also increasingly asserting itself in this region not only as an economic force but also as a geopolitical one. "The importance of the association in global affairs is rapidly growing as the Eurasian security system is being built, which [Russian President] Vladimir Putin first announced in June 2024," he said. As an example, the presidential adviser cited the second Russian-Indonesian naval exercise in recent years, which recently concluded in the Sea of Japan. Kobyakov also noted that military and military-technical cooperation with Myanmar is expanding, while military contacts with Vietnam and Laos remain in place, as do contacts with India outside ASEAN. 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