Page 10 - The Indian EYE 102822

OPINION OCTOBER 28, 2022 | The Indian Eye 10

A DECADE OF US ‘PIVOT TO ASIA’:

A look at the American strategic

framework for the Indo-Pacific region

The AUKUS agreement between the US, UK and Australia, which involves the transfer
of US nuclear naval propulsion technology to Australia, is a further significant move reinforcing the

capabilities of a key regional ally to counter security threats

ANUSHKA SAXENA US Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden

he ‘Pivot to Asia’, the strategic anese territorial waters. China also ances the US made especially to Aus- commitment to the economic inte-
rebalance announced by Pres- made economic inroads in Southeast tralia were widely welcomed. The US gration of the region.
Tident Barack Obama in 2011 Asia through trade-linked incentives. announced additional troop deploy-
and early 2012, marked a significant China’s rise severely threatened the ments to Australia, from 250 to 2,500 For US partners in the Indo-Pa-
shift in US foreign policy priorities regional order and the interests of marines at the Darwin base. The US cific, namely the Philippines,
from the Middle East to the Asia-Pa- the US and its allies like Japan and made similar military commitments
cific. While speaking at the Austra- Australia. to Singapore and the Philippines as Japan and Australia, the an-
lian Parliament in November 2011, The Pivot was a welcome policy well, while promising to make US ti-China bend of the pivot
Obama stated that as a Pacific nation, change for US allies in the Asia-Pa- military presence in East Asia “more
“the United States will play a larger cific, with analysts noting that the broadly distributed, more flexible, was assuring, given that they
and long-term role in shaping this US giving priority to Asia was “long and more politically sustainable”. were engaged in maritime dis-
region and its future, by upholding overdue”. When the then Secretary The US also engaged in nego-
core principles and in close partner- of State Hillary Clinton visited the tiations on the Trans-Pacific Part- putes with China. To show the
ship with our allies and friends.” The ASEAN Secretariat in 2009, ASE- nership (TPP) with 11 Pacific Rim US’ commitment to the pivot,
‘Pivot’ comprised an enhancement of AN Secretary-General Surin Pitsu- economies—Australia, Brunei, Can-
America’s military and security en- wan stated that her visit showed “the ada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Obama invited Japan, Australia
gagement as well as the expansion of seriousness of the United States to New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and and Vietnam, for the first time,
its economic and commercial lever- end its diplomatic absenteeism in the Vietnam. Obama’s interest in joining
age in the ‘Asia-Pacific’ region, at a region”. Domestic politics, an im- this trade deal, as he famously artic- to participate in the joint bilat-
time when it was mired in ‘forever portant driver of American foreign ulated in 2015, was that “if we don’t eral US–Philippines naval exer-
wars’ in the Middle East. policy, also turned against the US’s write the rules, China will write the
The pivot was announced at a continued engagement in the Middle rules out in that region”, indicating cise, Balikatan in 2012.
time when China was becoming more East. As per a 2011 Pew Survey, 57 clearly the containment tenet of the
aggressive in its neighborhood. Its per cent of the respondents opposed TPP. This was at a time when the However, not all ASEAN coun-
territorial claims spanned the Sprat- the war in Iraq, while 52 per cent op- trade deficit with China was US$ tries, especially Indonesia, were
ly and Paracel islands in the South posed the Afghan war. 282 billion in 2011. The TPP assured comfortable with the idea of the US
China Sea, as well as islands in Jap- As part of the pivot, the assur- member states of America’s renewed Continued at next page... >>

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