Page 12 - The Indian EYE 102822

OPINION OCTOBER 28, 2022 | The Indian Eye 12

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with U.S. President Joe Biden and Australia’s Prime USS Ronald Reagan patrolling the
Minister Anthony Albanese at Quad Summit in Tokyo (ANI) South China Sea region

increasing its troop presence in the new base in Henoko, indicates that which outlined a detailed financial nounced the Indo-Pacific Partnership
Darwin and Guam bases. The Phil- such sentiments are still strong. breakup for promoting US security for Maritime Domain Awareness.
ippines was criticized for opening the After the Pivot, there was a note- and economic interests in the In- The AUKUS agreement be-
region to a higher possibility of great worthy rise in active military and ci- do-Pacific Region. tween the US, UK and Australia,
power contestation between the US vilian personnel deployed by the US which involves the transfer of US
and China. to Japan. The number of deployed Under President Joe Biden, nuclear naval propulsion technology
The US withdrew from the TPP personnel to Japan was 55,278 as of to Australia, is a further significant
right after Obama’s presidency, even September 2011, and by December meanwhile, a renewed mul- move reinforcing the capabilities of
as China’s regional integration initia- 2015, it grew to 78,092. However, un- tilateral economic emphasis a key regional ally to counter securi-
tives such as the Belt and Road and der Trump, the number fell to 46,334 ty threats. In the latest US National
the Regional Comprehensive Eco- as of December 2016. The number of towards the region as a whole Security Strategy, released on 12
nomic Partnership (RCEP) gathered troops stood at 62,722, as of June 2022. came through the Indo-Pacific October 2022, the Biden administra-
steam. While the Trump administra- Even though the Trump admin- tion argues that “no region will be of
tion’s anti-China focus remained in- istration dis-engaged multilaterally Economic Framework (IPEF). more significance to the world and
tact, the US increasingly dissociated from the region, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ to everyday Americans than the In-
from its commitments to the region. became a construct of significance The IPEF’s agenda include do-Pacific”.
Trump, for instance, withdrew from in US foreign policy during his presi- trade, supply chain resilience, eco- A decade after the pivot, there-
the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a cor- dency, as evident from the renaming nomic resilience and clean energy fore, with an ascendant China loom-
nerstone of Obama’s Pivot, in Jan- of the US Pacific Command (USPA- and decarbonization. To strengthen ing large in the regional geo-strategic
uary 2017. Marking a break from COM) as the US Indo-Pacific Com- regional security engagements, the framework, US strategic priori-
Obama’s emphasis on regional mul- mand (USINDOPACOM) in 2018. Biden administration tabled the Pa- ties towards the Indo-Pacific have
tilateralism, Trump did not attend Additionally, the Trump administra- cific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) in been well and truly reinforced and
the ASEAN Summits in 2018, 2019 tion announced the Asia Reassur- May 2021 and the US along with the strengthened.
and 2020, while also declining to be ance Initiative Act (ARIA) in 2018, other Quad member countries an-
a part of the East Asia Summits of Anushka Saxena is pursuing her Mas-
2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. ter’s degree in International Relations
The Trump administration re- from the O.P Jindal Global University,
mained engaged with Middle East India, and is concurrently working as
contentions, curating the Abraham a Research Intern with the Institute
Accords and also withdrawing from of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Ac- has completed her Bachelor’s degree
tion (JCPOA). in History from the Lady Shri Ram
The security tenet of the Pivot College for Women, University of Delhi.
also faced issues on the US–Japan Her research interests include Chi-
front, due to debates regarding the na-Taiwan Cross-Strait Relations and
relocation of US marines from the maritime geopolitics.
Futenma base in Okinawa prefec- Views expressed are of the author and
ture, to a new base in Henoko Bay in do not necessarily reflect the views of
the same prefecture. While the Japa- the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
nese federal government made pro- Government of India.
visions for the relocation, the local
government and the people of He- This article first appeared in the
noko Bay were against it. The recent Comments section of the website (www.
re-election of Denny Tamaki as Gov- idsa.in) of Manohar Parrikar Institute
ernor of Okinawa, who campaigned China has become a major naval force in the past one decade for Defense Studies and Analyses, New
on preventing the development of a Delhi on October 27, 2022

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