The Biden-Harris Administration has made historic strides to strengthen American partnership in the Indo-Pacific region.
During the East Asia Summit, President Joe Biden envisioned an Indo-Pacific that’s open, connected, prosperous, resilient, and secure.
Indo-Pacific countries include Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, Vietnam.
This American commitment to the region, across oceans and political-party lines, reflects that the Indo-Pacific is the most dynamic region with huge influence in the global market.
The basis of the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States outlines President Biden’s vision to strengthen the region. Its main objective is to create sustainable and creative collaboration with allies, partners, and institutions, within the Indo-Pacific.
The United States plans to improve in the Indo-Pacific by:
Free and Open Markets
A free and open Indo-Pacific is necessary for our critical interests and those of our closest allies. It requires nations to make their own decisions in terms of the economy. The U.S. will work to make the region more free and open by:
- Funding democratic institutions, a free press, and a thriving civil society
- Promoting fiscal transparency to eliminate corruption and administer change in the region.
- Ensure sovereignty of Arial and water territories under international law
Interconnected Sustainability
The new era of U.S. -Indo-Pacific relations is free and open. We will strengthen regional and global collective sustainability by:
- Increasing the strength of our five regional treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Philippines, and Thailand.
- Strengthen relationships with key regional partners such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands.
- Contributing to a stronger and more united ASEAN
- To improve resilience in the Pacific Islands, partners are collaborating
- Creating links between the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic regions
- Expanding U.S. diplomatic presence in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands
Economic Prosperity
The Indo-Pacific’s success is synonymous with the prosperity of ordinary Americans. Hence, investments will foster innovation, economic competitiveness, good-paying employment, new supply chains, and extend economic prospects for middle-class families. Around 1.5 billion people in the Indo-Pacific will enter the global middle class this decade. The U.S. will contribute to Indo-Pacific development by:
Proposing an Indo-Pacific economic framework that will allow us to:
- Create innovative trading practices that adhere to solid labor and environmental norms.
- Govern our digital economies and cross-border data flows based on open principles, including via the creation of a new digital economy framework.
- Develop diversified, open, and predictable supply chains that are robust and secure.
- Joint investments in decarbonization and sustainable energy through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), notably in our 2023 host year, closing the region’s infrastructure deficit through the Build Back Better World initiative with G7 partners.
Security
The United States has maintained a protective presence in the Indo-Pacific for 75 years. It helped to ensure regional peace, security, stability, and development. Moreover, they’re expanding and modernizing their responsibility to protect the interests and prevent aggression against US territory, friends, and partners. The U.S. will strengthen Indo-Pacific security by using all available tools to discourage aggression and oppose coercion, including:
- Increasing the effectiveness of integrated deterrence
- Improve cooperation with allies and partners
- Continuing to deliver on AUKUS, expanding the US Coast Guard presence and cooperation against additional transnational threats, and working with Congress to support the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and the Maritime Security Initiative
- Developing new ways to function in constantly changing danger settings, such as space, cyberspace, and critical and emerging technologies
Resiliency
The Indo-Pacific region faces significant transnational issues. As South Asia’s glaciers melt and the Pacific Islands confront existential sea-level rises, climate change becomes alarming. We will strengthen regional resilience in the face of transnational dangers in the twenty-first century by:
- Working with allies and partners to produce 2030 and 2050 objectives, strategies, plans, and policies compatible with a 1.5 degree Celsius global temperature increase
- Reducing regional susceptibility to climate change and damage to the environment
- Putting an end to the COVID-19 epidemic and ensuring global health security
Olivia Yu has decades of experience in the Human Resources industry. She’s the Regional Director for Asia Pacific of a famous international HR company. Olivia’s international experience inspires her to write articles about human resources and global staffing.
