ABSTRACT
Defining the Indo-Pacific has always been somewhat controversial. It means different things to different people. For marine scientists it has connotations associated with unique species and oceanic currents peculiar to the seas; for geologists and oceanographers it depicts surface and sub-surface delineations that divide the earth in physically identifiable segments; for sociologists it could mean a region of races and traits that have a common ancestry, and so on. On a geo-political note the Indo-Pacific conjures up a mental image of a maritime space of the littoral states of the Indian and Pacific oceans, closely intertwined and interconnected through the maritime medium but yet inseparable from their sovereign identities which, through physical geography or accidents of history, are now unified as a common entity destined for a shared future.
