{"id":189683,"date":"2022-06-09T20:42:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=189683"},"modified":"2022-06-09T20:43:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:13:13","slug":"dealing-with-the-indo-pacific-is-not-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/dealing-with-the-indo-pacific-is-not-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with the Indo-Pacific is not easy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News:<\/strong> Recently, the U.S. President Joseph Biden made a five-day visit to Asian countries.<\/p>\n

What are the ongoing challenges?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Indo-Pacific region<\/strong> has been under pressure and East Asia<\/strong>, in particular, For example, China challenges international maritime laws in the South China Sea. It also confronts Japan over the Senkaku Islands.<\/p>\n

South Korea and Japan face regular nuclear<\/strong> and missile threats<\/strong> from North Korea. For example, soon after the US visit, North Korea<\/strong> test-fired three ballistic missiles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are growing concerns over Chinese military activity<\/strong> in the Indo Pacific region. For example, Chinese<\/strong> and Russian fighter jets<\/strong> carried out joint flights over the Sea of Japan<\/strong> and the East China Sea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Six nations, including China and Taiwan, are involved in the dispute over the Spratly Islands, having vast reserves of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n

China has vigorously militarised some portions of the disputed isles, islets and coral reefs.<\/p>\n

Outcomes of the Biden\u2019s Asian visit<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The South Korean government showed willingness to expand the presence of a U.S. missile defence system in the country.<\/p>\n

The Japan government promised to do away with its long-standing 1% GDP ceiling on annual defence spending<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. President promised to intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China. However, American foreign policy<\/strong> is governed by the Taiwan Relations Act.<\/strong> Which mandates the U.S. to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character\u201d so that it can defend itself, not step in militarily to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China.<\/p>\n

The IPEF framework<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Biden administration has sought to counter the assertiveness <\/strong>and aggressiveness <\/strong>of Beijing, by establishing an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Members<\/strong><\/p>\n

The IPEF will function with Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Focus Areas<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The IPEF will work on fine-tuning four major pillars<\/strong>: standards and rules for digital trade; resilient supply chains; green energy commitments; and fair trade.<\/p>\n

Issues in the IPEF<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There is discontent that the framework does not<\/strong> address issues of trade<\/strong> and tariffs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The IPEF framework is lacking in the trade componen<\/strong>t. The framework aims to offer money for clean energy, supply chain resilience, and anti-corruption. But the Asian partners want trade<\/strong> and market access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The US administration must pay attention to two facets in the Asia Pacific\/Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

One is that China\u2019s neighbours would rather balance relations between Washington and Beijing.<\/p>\n

Just like in Europe, where Russian aggression has led to uniting the rest of the region against Russia. Similarly, circumstances may also arise in Asia due to Chinese aggression.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the countries in the region will not want to get on the anti-China bandwagon<\/strong>. Every country in East, Southeast or South Asia, has its own unique relationship with Beijing. For example, despite South Korea and Japan being part of a strong American security\/strategic partnership<\/strong>, they are keen to maintain their economic status with China. This is also true for the Association of South East Asian Nations.<\/strong> Similarly, India, being the Quad member, also shares a land border with China which is laced with disputes.<\/p>\n

In response to geopolitical tensions<\/strong>, countries have increasingly emphasised resilience<\/strong> and national security considerations<\/strong> over the economic gains from free trade and investment flows. However, they should be very careful about taking extreme measures.<\/p>\n

The countries should not adopt protectionist measures <\/strong>such as disconnecting from global supply chains. This may shut off avenues for regional growth and cooperation. Such measures will deepen divisions<\/strong> between countries, and may lead to conflicts that we all hope to avoid.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cDealing with the Indo-Pacific is not easy<\/strong>\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu<\/strong>\u201d on 9th<\/sup> June 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Recently, the U.S. President Joseph Biden made a five-day visit to Asian countries. What are the ongoing challenges? The Indo-Pacific region has been under pressure and East Asia, in particular, For example, China challenges international maritime laws in the South China Sea. It also confronts Japan over the Senkaku Islands. South Korea and Japan… Continue reading Dealing with the Indo-Pacific is not easy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-189683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704685540},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}