The US has said the execution of its Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2022 amidst the strategic competition with China has made the country and the dynamic region more secure and more prosperous, and expanded the bilateral partnership with India in unprecedented ways.

Addressing the media on the second anniversary of the launch of the landmark foreign policy strategy of the Biden administration, Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House, said, “The US has never been in a stronger position in the Indo-Pacific.”

“Over the past two years, we have made historic progress in advancing an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient. The US has never been in a stronger position in the Indo-Pacific,” she said.

In the two years since the launch of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the US has reinvested and revitalised its alliances and partnerships and taken them to new heights, Watson said. “We have deepened and elevated alliances with Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand. We upgraded our bilateral relationships with Vietnam and Indonesia, and our partnership with ASEAN. We have expanded our partnership with India in unprecedented ways. We have surged our efforts in the Pacific, including with two historic summits for Pacific Island leaders at the White House and the establishment of the Partners of the Blue Pacific,” she said.

The region accounts for 60 per cent of global GDP as well as two-thirds of global economic growth. Trade between the US and the Indo-Pacific region reached over $ 2 trillion in 2022, and the US benefits from $956 billion in foreign direct investment from the Indo-Pacific, the White House stated.

Courtesy: The Tribune India: 14th Feb , 2024