The document says Washington will ‘continue to support India’s rise and regional leadership’
The Biden administration on Friday announced the long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy. The document focuses on building collective capacity to deal with challenges in the region – China’s assertiveness, the pandemic and climate change, among others.
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The policies laid down in the document have continuity with the strategies of the previous administration. These include focusing on China’s challenges, advancing US relations, supporting a ‘major defense partnership’ with India and its role as a net security provider in the region. The emphasis is on working with other countries not only from the region, but also from outside.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, a senior administration official, who did not wish to be named, said India’s role in the Quad is an important element of US-India relations, and “to speak clearly about issues in the region”. “It’s a tool. and to distribute together on public goods. Quad plans to deliver more than one billion COVID-19 vaccines to the region by the end of this year.
Responding to a question about India’s enthusiasm for greater alignment with the US, the official said China’s actions along the Line of Actual Control (i.e., border conflict with India) had an “encouraging effect” on India Is.
The strategy document states that the US will “continue to support India’s rise and regional leadership” while working with India bilaterally and through groups on a range of issues. It refers to India as a “like-minded partner” and a “motivating force” in the Quad.
The overall growing US focus on the region is due to its growing challenges, particularly from China, according to the strategy document.
“The coercion and aggression of the PRC is widespread around the world, but it is most intense in the Indo-Pacific. From economic pressures in Australia to conflicts along the Line of Actual Control with India to increasing pressure on Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas. Our allies and partners in the region bear the vast majority of the cost of the PRC, up to threats from neighbors, harmful behavior,” it says.
“We recognize the limitations in our ability to transform China, and therefore, seek to shape the strategic environment around China…” the senior administrative official briefed reporters.
Broadly speaking, the US will seek an Indo-Pacific region that is free and open, connected, prosperous, secure and resilient. On the “free” aspect – one of the strategic actions outlined is to invest in civil society, a free press and democratic institutions. On the topic of “connections” within and outside the region, the US says it will work “in resilient groups” to tackle key issues “particularly through the Quad”. It will also deepen its (five) regional treaty alliances and work with groups such as ASEAN, the European Union (EU) and NATO.
To advance its prosperity goal for the region, America’s strategy includes demanding higher labor and environmental standards, helping establish secure supply chains, and investing in clean energy.
“Integrated deterrence” will form a “cornerstone” of America’s security plan for the region, and it will take “initiatives that strengthen deterrence and retaliatory pressure, such as efforts to alter territorial borders or undermine sovereign states’ rights at sea.” oppose.” The context of the territorial boundaries is, at least, possibly, about China’s actions on the Line of Actual Control.
The US seeks to boost ties between countries in the region and beyond, such as Australia, through the recently launched security alliance between the UK and the US, AUKUS.
On Taiwan, the document says it will work with partners inside and outside the region to maintain “peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits”. There are references to maintaining existing policies towards both Taipei and Beijing.
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