US President Joe Biden arrived in Asia today. This is his first visit to the region since he took office a little over a year ago. Biden will visit South Korea and Japan, considered the two most important US allies in this part of the world.
Aside from the issues that are clearly expected to form the agenda of the meetings, such as the strategies to contain the North Korean nuclear program and the concerns surrounding the crisis in Ukraine, the two other initiatives of this mission, summarized in abbreviations, are particularly worthy. attention: QUAD and IPEF.
First, QUAD corresponds to the “Quadruple Security Dialogue”, an informal alliance that deals with military cooperation between the US, Japan, Australia and India. Despite being introduced in the first decade of the 2000s, regulation only gained strength in 2017, under the Trump administration, because it was understood not only as a forum for discussion on Indo-Pacific security issues, but also as an interesting avenue. It includes China’s advances in this area.
The other initiative, IPEF, corresponds to the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” and includes projects aimed at increasing trade and cooperation between the United States and Asian countries in the fields of infrastructure, technology and environment. The idea is to consolidate a supply chain that excludes China from traditional trading blocks from a more flexible structure. During this trip, Biden is expected to present the details of this proposal.
We know that Biden shares Trump’s view of China and is trying at all costs to revive Obama’s “back to Asia” policy. Not surprisingly, his government held meetings between four heads of government of the countries that included QUAD in 2021. Topics such as semiconductors, vaccines and 5G technology were discussed at the first meetings. It should be noted that this movement began to triangulate with AUKUS, the military alliance of Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, which was announced to the public in 2021.
Therefore, in his Asia tour, Biden aims to strengthen US leadership and US commitment to these and other partners, as well as looking for indirect ways to increase expectations and demands for countries that are seen as unstable, such as India. The Indians, in particular, were reluctant to take the side of the West in the conflict with Russia, as well as in establishing a more vigorous dialogue with China. They are closely watched by Washington.
Biden sees China as America’s biggest geopolitical threat in the 21st century, and controlling China’s expansion is a strategic priority. The plan is clear: from the economy to security, enlist the support of the middle powers to increase influence in the region.
source: Noticias
