US to strengthen role in Indo-Pacific, under new broad strategy

The Biden administration has promised to embed the US more deeply in the Indo-Pacific, calling its freedom and openness of utmost importance to American interests, under a long-awaited broad strategy for the region unveiled on Friday.

"We recognise that American interests can only be advanced if we firmly anchor the United States in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen the region itself, alongside our closest allies and partners," said the strategy document.

America's intensifying focus on the region is partly to counter China's "coercion and aggression" in the Indo-Pacific as Beijing "pursues a sphere of influence" there, said the 12-page document.

"Our allies and partners in the region bear much of the cost of the PRC's harmful behaviour," it said, citing issues such as Beijing's economic coercion of Australia, growing pressure on Taiwan and bullying of neighbours in the East and South China seas.

"Our collective efforts over the next decade will determine whether the PRC succeeds in transforming the rules and norms that have benefited the Indo-Pacific and the world," said the report, using the formal name of the People's Republic of China.

Mr Joe Biden is the third US president in recent decades to promise a greater focus on the region, following Mr Barack Obama's "Pivot to Asia" and Mr Donald Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy, both of which were criticised for lacking a broad economic strategy.

The strategy did not address the US exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership mega trade deal, which foreign policy watchers say puts it at a disadvantage as China deepens its trade ties with the region.

Under the Biden strategy, the US will launch an economic framework for the region that will "develop new approaches to trade", craft principles for digital economies and cross-border data flows, and strengthen supply chains. It also calls for deepening US treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand, and strengthening partnerships with partners, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.

It will invest more resources in the region, including to build maritime capacity, and boost the US Coast Guard presence and cooperation in South-east and South Asia and the Pacific Islands.

The US will also invest in regional groups, including Asean and the Quad partnership it has with Australia, India and Japan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met his Quad counterparts on Friday during his Asia-Pacific trip, released a joint statement with them pledging to advance an Indo-Pacific "free from coercion", in a veiled reference to China's growing assertiveness.

The strategy urged the bringing together of Indo-Pacific and European countries in new ways, such as through the Aukus security pact between Australia, Britain and the US. It also promised to help with the region's efforts to combat climate change and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

A senior administration official said Washington was focused on playing a positive role in the region, rather than viewing it solely as an arena for superpower competition. The official added: "This is not our China strategy. This very clearly identifies China as one of the challenges that the region faces... but our China strategy is global in scope...

"Countries in the region want to see the US continuing to play an important role. They want to continue to see an affirmative US vision for what we are doing that is not couched in suggesting the countries need to take sides."

American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Zack Cooper told The Sunday Times the strategy was likely written with South-east Asia in mind. "It tries to articulate a positive vision for the US in the region and focuses less on China. I think that's the right approach."

He added: "The question, however, is whether the administration will be able to convince regional players that it is willing and able to expend sufficient resources on Asia while it is addressing responsibilities elsewhere."