Asia is a top priority for the United States

According to political experts, the Indo-Pacific is going to play a much bigger role in US foreign policy, with Asia a top priority.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are in Japan and South Korea this week, visiting Washington’s two largest military allies in Asia, where tens of thousands of troops are stationed.

Last Friday, President Joe Biden virtually met the prime ministers of Japan, India and Australia as part of the first summit of leaders of an informal strategic alliance – the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad as it is known.

“Asia is the priority,” Angela Mancini, a partner at Control Risks, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday. She explained that the US makes it very clear from last week’s Quad meeting as well as the overall diplomacy that is happening with the current government that the Indo-Pacific region is important to Washington – compared to the previous one. administration’s transactional approach.

“In addition to building alliances to possibly counter China, there are also some bilateral issues to deal with,” Mancini said.

The Biden government builds on the framework left by the Trump administration regarding the Indo-Pacific strategy and develops a coalition of partners to work with, according to Akhil Bery, analyst at South Asia at Eurasia Group for political risk advice.

The spate of diplomatic operations in Asia by US officials comes ahead of Blinken’s meeting with Chinese officials Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi on March 18 in Alaska.

The informal Quad alliance positions itself as committed to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

According to Harsh Pant, head of the strategic study program at the Observer Research Foundation in New, the group will play a much more important role in the region and possibly become a core of a larger regional security architecture ‘. Delhi.

The Quad has had a flawed existence for more than a decade, even after US-China geopolitical tensions began to worsen, followed by a weakening of India-China relations, Pant said on CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday. Asia “said. The group’s profile has risen over the past few months, he said.

Last year, India invited Australia to join the Malabar naval exercises with the US and Japan. For years, New Delhi resisted Canberra’s participation by considering that the move would attract Beijing.

Pant said India appears to be reevaluating its policy towards China after putting a “fence” in the region’s greater balance of power. New Delhi is now very clear about its reasons for joining certain platforms, he added.

Last Friday’s joint statement from the Quad avoided any direct mention of China and its foreign policy in the region and instead focused on areas such as the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19.

The agreement is already an “important step forward and shows that the group is capable of delivering tangible deliveries, rather than just talking about the China challenge,” Eurasia Group’s Bery emailed CNBC. .

While it remains to be seen to what extent the Biden government can get allies to approach developments in the region from a multilateral perspective, it is likely that Beijing will push back, Mancini of Control Risks said.

“China feels that they are surrounded by the US and that the feeling is real and growing, and therefore they are going to push back with their own investments in technological spending and their own focus on the domestic economy,” she said.