English Article

Indo-Pacific Significance

Biden is risking his Indo-Pacific strategy.

At a time when America’s global pre-eminence is being severely challenged by China, the future of the present U.S.-led international order and America’s own standing are likely to be settled in the Indo-Pacific region, especially Asia. This explains why Joe Biden is the third successive U.S. President to commit to shifting America’s primary strategic focus to the Indo-Pacific. Yet, it is far from certain that he will succeed where his two predecessors failed.

Strategy on the Indo-Pacific

If anything, Mr. Biden is getting increasingly distracted from the Indo-Pacific by Russian moves. The escalating U.S.-Russia tensions over NATO’s forward policy, with Ukraine as the flashpoint, threaten to become the defining crisis of the Biden presidency. The crisis, which has the makings of a drawn-out and dangerous confrontation, could deepen the involvement of an already overstretched U.S.in European security. The White House released its long-delayed ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ document on February 11, the same day it publicly warned that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine within days. A Russian invasion into the Ukrainian heartland would leave Mr. Biden little time for the Indo-Pacific, which explains why the 19-page document was hurriedly released on a Friday afternoon, amid criticism that the President lacks clarity on an Indo-Pacific policy despite being in office for more than a year. Mr. Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy, as a bare-bones paper for public consumption, offers a bird’s-eye look at how his administration views the Indo-Pacific landscape. With its brief or nebulous references to key regional issues and challenges, the document does not provide adequate clarity on the thrust and direction of U.S. policy in the region. In fact, it reads more like a watered-down version of the ‘United States Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific’ of former President Donald Trump’s administration. More significantly, it comes without the assumptions, objectives and actions that were distinctly defined under each topic in that strategic framework, which was declassified in the final days of the Trump presidency with just light redactions.