Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy highlights importance of much greater US engagement with India
As the US rolled out its Indo-Pacific Strategy, officials highlighted the importance of much greater US engagement, much improved US relations with and much closer US partnership with India.
The last four administrations starting with President Bill Clinton “have all played a very important role in advancing” this policy towards India, a senior administration official said in a background press call last week.
A key element of President Joe “Biden’s comprehensive vision for an Indo-Pacific that is free, open, prosperous, secure, and resilient” is to support India’s continued rise and regional leadership, he said.
Read: Survey finds Indians sharing positive views on US intervention in Indo-Pacific region (June 19, 2017)
Another important point was to “deliver on what we see as the tremendous potential and promise of the Quad — US, India, Australia and Japan, the official said. “And, obviously, India’s role in the Quad, I think, is a very significant element of that.”
This “includes the much-enhanced ability to speak frankly about issues in the region; to work together to deliver, you know, essentially, public goods that address, you know, challenges in the region; and to enhance ways in which we can coordinate,” he said.
“So we see this as a very, very high priority,” the official said noting, “Obviously, you know, India is in a very different place, in many ways, than Australia, than other countries.
“But India faces very significant challenges,” he said. “And I think that, you know, China’s behavior on the line of actual control has had a galvanizing impact on India.”
From America’s standpoint, the official said, “we see tremendous opportunities in working with another democracy, with a country that has a maritime tradition that understands the importance of the global commons to advance critical issues in the region.”
“There is tremendous appreciation of the importance and the challenges of strengthening the engagement with India and a recognition that India is a critical strategic partner, and a desire to continue building on the very good work of previous administrations to significantly broaden and deepen that relationship,” he said.
“For some time, leaders from both political parties, and certainly on Capitol Hill, have recognized the growing importance of the Indo-Pacific,” the official said describing the strategy as “part of that tradition and builds on the work of previous administrations.”
“It argues that no region will be more vital to the United States in the future and that American security and prosperity fundamentally depend on that of the Indo-Pacific.”
Read: US Indo-Pacific strategy to back India’s ‘rise, regional leadership’ (February 12, 2022)
There are two key elements to the US approach, the official said.
“First, the goal of this strategy is to strengthen the US role in the region, which we believe is very important to the region but obviously very important to us.”
“Second, we seek to build the collective capacity to rise to 21st century challenges and seize opportunities, whether that has to do with climate, with PRC (China) behavior, or preparing for the next pandemic and recovering from this one,” the official said.