Gist of US Strategic Policy for Indo Pacific Region | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Gist of Rajya Sabha TV : US Strategic Policy for Indo Pacific Region

Introduction

With just a week to go before its end, the Trump administration has declassified a sensitive document on the U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific from 2018. The 10-page document, declassified in part by US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, outlines objectives and strategies with regard to China, North Korea, India and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Framed more than two years before the India-China military standoff along the Line of Actual Control, the strategy makes more than 20 mentions of India – seeing it as pre-eminent in South Asia… taking on the leading role in maintaining Indian Ocean security. And in this regard the document says the United States will build a stronger foundation for defence cooperation, expand defence trade and ability to transfer defence technology to enhance India’s status as a Major Defence Partner, increase cooperation on shared regional security concerns and encourage India’s engagement beyond the Indian Ocean Region. On the other hand, China is the primary state actor of concern outlined in the document. As per the Framework, Beijing is increasingly pressuring Indo-Pacific nations to subordinate their freedom and sovereignty to a "common destiny" envisioned by the Chinese Communist Party. On this edition of the Big Picture, we will analyse the declassified US report on Indo Pacific and the growing importance of India in the region.

The ‘focus areas’ of the document

• The framework is focused on recalibrating U.S. policy to compete with a more powerful, ambitious, and belligerent China.
• The document defines the “top interests” of the U.S. in the region as follows:
  • defend the homeland and American citizens abroad
  • prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them
  • preserve U.S. economic, diplomatic, and military access to the most populous region of the world and more than one-third of the global economy
  • enhance the credibility and effectiveness of our alliances
  • maintain U.S. primacy in the region while protecting American core values and liberties at home

Background

• The 10-page document, titled “U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific,” formally classified as SECRET and not for release to foreign nationals.
• It was compiled in 2018 and was expected to remain classified until 2043.
• It provided overarching strategic guidance for implementing the 2017 National Security Strategy within the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.

How does the US see China?

• The US sees Chinaas a strategic competitor bent on circumventing international rules and norms and a key security concern across the Indo-Pacific region, where Beijing wants to establish “new, illiberal spheres of influence”.
• One of the main national security challenges for the US in the region is maintaining its primacy and promoting a “liberal economic order while preventing China from establishing new, illiberal spheres of influence”.
• China’s economic, diplomatic and military influence will “continue to increase in the near-term and challenge the US ability to achieve its national interests in the Indo-Pacific”.

What does it say about India?

• The document states the end objectivesfor various countries in the region, including the Quad countries — US, India, Japan and Australia.
• In the document, the US pledged commitment to India’s Security and Growth for All Regions policy.
• It also states that it is an American objective that India remains preeminent in South Asia and grows its economy, defence capability and diplomatic power to cooperate with the US and other allies and partners.
• The document notes that the US will seek to enhance India’s border security and secure India’s access to the waters of the river Brahmaputra.
• Furthermore, the US will also support India’s bid for membership of the Nuclear Supplier’s Group, and work “with India toward domestic economic reform and an increased leadership role in the East Asia Summit (EAS) and ADMM+ (Asean Defence Ministers Meeting)”.

The US Indo-Pacific Coordinator

• President-elect Joe Biden appointed top American diplomat Kurt M. Campbell as the ‘Indo-Pacific Coordinator’.
• This new title given to any American diplomat for the first time ever is an indication that the incoming Biden administration will follow the same path, if not a more enhanced one, that the outgoing Trump government followed when it came to keeping the limelight on arresting China’s rise in the region, while working out a more strategic partnership with some of US’ allies such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and India.

Conclusion

Today, any strategy for the Indo-Pacific would benefit ONLY from, the need for a balance of power; the need for an order that the region’s states recognize as legitimate; and the need for an allied and partner coalition to address China’s challenge to both. Such an approach can ensure that the Indo-Pacific’s future is characterized by balance and twenty-first-century openness rather than hegemony and nineteenth-century spheres of influence.