In an op-ed in the Washington Post, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discuss how President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy has made the place more safe and productive.
The three officials emphasized that the United States has made the Indo-Pacific area and world safer by reviving and strengthening our alliances and collaborations through important initiatives like launching AUKUS, raising the Quad to the chief level, and holding the landmark US-Japan-ROK trilateral officials ‘ conference. The outcomes will give off for the American people for decades to come.
” No place on Earth is more critical to Americans ‘ livelihoods and futures than the Indo-Pacific”, the article read.
Nearly 60 % of the world’s GDP is produced by the region, which extends from our Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean. More than 3 million American jobs are supported by commerce. Much of the world’s advanced manufacturing, which helps power the US economy, happens in its factories, they added.
They highlighted that the area’s serious security challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling and China’s dangerous and provocative actions at sea, have effects far beyond the region.
When President Biden took office, America’s standing in this critical part of the world was at its lowest point in decades. The region was still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic.
An increasingly aggressive China was profiting from America’s turn inward to advance its alternative vision of the world, a vision that was incompatible with US interests, and the US allies and partners feared this would make Washington an “unreliable friend.”
” So, President Biden instructed us to transform our approach to the region”, the leaders stated.
One of the most significant and under-told accounts of President Biden and Vice President Harris ‘ foreign policy strategy is the transformation that it has led, and the incredible results it has produced, they continued.
First, we upgraded the old “hub and spoke” model of diplomacy with an integrated, interconnected network of partnerships.
” The United States had long had one-to-one partnerships and alliances with other Indo-Pacific countries. But much like the hub and the spokes of a wheel, those individual partnerships did n’t overlap. We have worked to bring those partners together in novel and creative ways in addition to strengthening our existing one-to-one relationships in Asia,” the article continued.
Following this, the US launched AUKUS, a new security partnership among Australia, Britain, and the United States.
The leaders emphasized the unprecedented level of defense and economic cooperation between our nations when President Biden united Japan and South Korea, two nations with a difficult history, to attend the Camp David Trilateral Summit.
Biden also hosted the first-ever summit between Japan and the Philippines, forging another three-way partnership with US treaty allies.
We elevated the regional grouping known as the Quad– Australia, India, Japan and the United States– to deliver hundreds of millions of lifesaving coronavirus vaccines, mobilize millions of dollars in digital infrastructure investments, and advance the global clean energy transition.
We collaborated with 13 other partners to create the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity to ensure that we are meeting today’s economic challenges, including preserving our crucial technologies and establishing secure supply chains, as opposed to just 20 years ago.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum, two important regional organizations, were the first to hold summits at the White House.
” Second, we worked closely with our allies and partners to confront shared challenges together”, the leaders emphasized.
They claimed that no other nation had alliances and partnerships like America. They project our power and magnify our strength. And they deliver results. Today, this is strikingly evident in the Indo-Pacific”, they added, while highlighting the defence transformation of different US allies.
Japan is investing heavily in defense, which will enable it to contribute significantly more to our alliance and regional security.
South Korea has also adopted a new strategy to boost economic investment in key Southeast Asian sectors, strengthening supply chains that the U.S. economy depends on.
Australia has developed new resources to assist Pacific Islanders in becoming more resilient to economic coercion from China and climate change.
The Philippines is modernizing its military arsenal and integrating them more and more with America’s, improving their ability to withstand Chinese pressure in the South China Sea.
The leaders also made a point about how India and the United States are working together in all sectors that will affect the future, from semiconductors to artificial intelligence to clean energy, as a result of Biden’s policy.
The US’s largest military ties upgrade in seven decades was recently announced by the US’s plans to modernize the organization’s command and control of Japan. For the first time ever, Japan, South Korea, and the United States held a meeting there. Additionally, they made an all-new USD 500 million investment to aid in the Philippine military’s modernization.
In response to Russia’s aggression, the leaders praised President Joe Biden’s efforts to build ties between his allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, and Japan and other Asian partners who have shown strong support for Ukraine.
China’s allies in Europe are also holding the US accountable for supporting Vladimir Putin’s war machine and undermining the world’s rules-based order.
” All this is producing historic security dividends. Our allies and partners are armed with our arms in opposition to North Korea’s destabilizing weapons programs. We’re pushing back together against China’s dangerous brinkmanship in the region’s waterways. The leaders stated in the article that our security partnerships across the Indo-Pacific are more efficient and cohesive, which makes us and our neighbors safer and stronger.
