torsdag 11. april 2024

Why the U.S. Is Building Out Partnerships in the Indo-Pacific—and How It Could Backfire

“Our alliances are America’s greatest asset,” President Joe Biden said in a joint press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Wednesday, a day before hosting a historic first trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines on Thursday. Indeed, the U.S. has ramped up its partnership-building, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, as it seems to seek to establish a countervailing force to China’s growing influence and assertiveness in the region.

In just the last three years, the U.S. has solidified individual ties with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore, among others, as well as fostered new collective relationships between nations such as Japan and South Korea, Australia and the U.K., and now Japan and the Philippines.