More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2026

NEW DELHI – In what could be seen as a snub to India, the US Department of War Wednesday restored the name of the Indo-Pacific Command to US Pacific Command, without any change in its area of responsibility. At the same time, a map on the command's official website showed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as a part of Pakistan, not India.

"Restoring the legacy USPACOM designation honours the command's deep historical roots, fostering a sense of pride and collective spirit among all who serve in the Pacific," it said in an official statement. "USPACOM's vast area of responsibility -- spanning from the waters off the West Coast of the United States to the western border of India -- remains exactly the same."

Established on Jan. 1, 1947, by former US president Harry S. Truman, the USPACOM is the oldest and largest of the US unified combat commands.

Meanwhile, the opposition Indian National Congress was quick to take a dig at the Narendra Modi government, which had flaunted the addition of the prefix 'Indo' to the Pacific Command's name in 2018 as a major achievement of its diplomacy and India's rising influence under Prime Minister Modi.

"The message is hard to miss: India's diplomatic weight is no longer what the Bharatiya Janata Party propaganda promised it was," Congress Spokesperson Pawan Khera wrote on X. He recalled that when the US Pacific Command was renamed the US Indo-Pacific Command in 2018, the Modi government had "celebrated" it as a symbolic badge of India's rising global influence.

"Today, that badge has been stripped away," Khera said. "A country once important enough to lend its name to an entire strategic theatre now finds itself erased from it -- so much for the grand claims of Vishwaguru and India's supposedly unprecedented global standing.

"Waiting for Modi Ji to walk into Parliament and be garlanded for this achievement as well," Khera said, taking a swipe at BJP MPs garlanding Modi on various occasions. 

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor linked the development to the increasing redundancy of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic grouping formed to contain the growing economic and political influence of China in the Indo-Pacific. "One more nail in the coffin of the Quad?" Tharoor, a retired career diplomat, wrote on X. India is a partner in the Quad, along with the US, Australia, and Japan.  End

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Avishek Dutta

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.