India to be ‘key partner’ in US IndoPacific strategy
COUNTERING CHINA US to give alternative to Belt & Road Initiative, says official WASHINGTON:
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is expected to announce a series of investments and initiatives in infrastructure, digital economy and energy in the Indo-Pacific region in a speech on Monday building on President Donald Trump’s strategy for the region.
“I am here to say emphatically that the Trump administration is expanding our economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific,” Pompeo is expected to say, according to Axios, which was briefed on the speech by a source with direct knowledge of the contents.
It wasn’t clear what the pitch will be for India, but senior US state department official Brian Hook, previewing the speech on a conference call, told reporters: “India is a key partner in our efforts to ensure that the entire Indo-Pacific region is a region of peace, stability and growing prosperity. We work very closely with India.”
He added, “When you look at the democracies spanning the Indo-Pacific region, from the US, India, Japan and other very strong democracies that span the Indo-Pacific, we share an interest in advancing security and prosperity in the region.”
Pompeo will deliver the speech at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum being hosted by US chamber of commerce in Washington. His speech will be followed by others by cabinet members such as secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross and energy secretary Rick Perry. The chamber said in an announcement on the event: “The Indo-Pacific has emerged as a critical engine for growth, with Asian economies projected to create 50% of global GDP in the coming decades. To realise that potential, the countries of the Indo-Pacific will need to attract nearly $26 trillion in capital to fund their energy and infrastructure needs.
“The US will be a critical player in both investing the capital, and building the technology and infrastructure that the region requires.”
China is likely to be the intended, but unstated, target of the new initiative. Hook said the US approach to development in the region was not aimed at countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which comprises mostly state-led infrastructure projects linking Asia, parts of Africa and Europe. But the US will offer an alternative. “It (BRI) is a made in China, made for China initiative. Our way of doing things is to keep the government’s role very modest.”