About - Mapping Indo-Pacific Engagement


Mapping the engagement of Japan and the Russian Federation in the Indo-Pacific.

The project aims to provide a user-friendly interactive research tool which consolidates information on the fast-evolving relationships developing across the Indo-Pacific region. The current two maps represent Phase 1 of the project which focuses on mapping the regional engagements of Japan and the Russian Federation in the Indo-Pacific. The maps have been developed with support from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Strategic Initiative.

About the Project

The rise of the Indo-Pacific as a distinct regional space is seeing the emergence of broad and diversified engagement by leading international actors, often on the basis on distinct regional strategies. The Indo-Pacific is seen as both representing major opportunities but also growing risks as a result of evolving great power competition – principally between China and the United States. The idea of a distinct region is also contested by leading international actors, notably China and the Russian Federation, which argue that the idea of the Indo-Pacific is a security construction of the United States and its leading allies and partners. There are also different definitions of the scope of the region, even amongst close allies, reflecting differing ideas of national interest and understandings of the key regional dynamics.

While the concept of the Indo-Pacific is contested, the growing cohesive engagement by international actors with a wide geography of counties located around and across the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean sub-regions points to the emergence of distinct strategic space. For the purposes of these maps, the Indo-Pacific region consists of more than 80 countries and other territories (for example Taiwan and the Cook Islands). Data on the engagement of the United Kingdom (2017-2021), Japan (2018-2022, with selected data up to Q1 2023), and the Russian Federation (2017-2021) with these countries is presented here to assist work to clarify the emerging political, diplomatic, defence and security approaches being employed and how various bilateral and minilateral engagements are also evolving. The maps are, thus, intended to help to understand the developing complexity of the Indo-Pacific and to facilitate further analysis of the region.

Project Objectives

  • To provide an evidence driven mapping of the evolving Indo-Pacific engagements of leading international actors;
  • To provide a point of reference for building comparisons of the approaches to the Indo-Pacific region being taken by these actors;
  • To highlight which relationships and issue areas are the priorities for the three countries across the region and how these priorities have developed in recent years.

Mapping engagement


Here we look at how Japan and the Russian Federation have engaged with the Indo-Pacific

Mapping Japan's Engagement in the Indo-Pacific
Mapping the Russian Federation's Engagement in the Indo-Pacific

Supported by

  • The Japanese Government

    The Japanese Government

    The 'Mapping Japan's Engagement in the Indo-Pacific' project is supported by the Japanese Government.

  • Russia Strategic Initiative

    Russia Strategic Initiative

    This publication (Mapping the Russian Federation's Engagement in the Indo-Pacific) has been funded by the Russia Strategic Initiative, U.S. European Command. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense or the United States government.

Project team


Dr Neil Melvin

Director, International Security

International Security

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Dr Maryna Vorotnyuk

Associate Fellow

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Veerle Nouwens

External Author | Former RUSI Senior Research Fellow, Asia-Pacific

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Aaditya Dave

Former Research Analyst, South Asia

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Ben Cutter, University of Exeter


Footnotes