A new declassified document suggests that Washington sees New Delhi primarily as a security partner.
January 18, 2021
Ships from the Royal Australian Navy, Indian Navy, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and U.S. Navy sail in formation during Malabar 2020.
Credit: Flickr/U.S. Pacific Fleet
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Amid the dizzying news that shook up President Donald Trump’s last days in office, the White House declassified a relatively unspectacular new document: its Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific.
It was unclear why the White House chose to do that in the middle of a chaotic transition. The framework contained many well-worn cliches of Trump’s foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific: that countering China’s expanding influence is the headline priority; that North Korea should be defanged; and that the U.S. should establish “fair and reciprocal” trade. Some analysts, such as Nitin Pai at the Takshashila Institution, wondered if this was the Washington foreign policy est
US Declassifies Strategy, Revealing Yawning Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality
The “Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” reveals few surprises, and even fewer successes, in the last days of the Trump administration.
January 14, 2021
Ships from the Indian Navy, Royal Australian Navy, and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force make their approach toward the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain while conducting replenishment-at-sea approaches as part of Malabar 2020.
Credit: Flickr/U.S. Pacific Fleet
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Just eight days before Joe Biden is inaugurated as president of the United States, the Trump administration declassified the strategy it purports to have followed in its policies towards Asia.
What Does the US Indo-Pacific Framework Say About Southeast Asia?
The document lays out ambitious aims for the region, with little apparent sense of how they can be fulfilled.
January 13, 2021
U.S. President Donald Trump visits the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command (later renamed Indo-Pacific Command) in Hawai’i on November 3, 2017.
Credit: Flickr/U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
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On January 5, a day before the tumult at the United States Capitol, the U.S. government declassified one of its most sensitive national security documents: its 2018 U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific.
The full 10-page framework document, which was made public late on January 12, minus a number of redactions, represents the blueprint of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy developed by President Donald Trump’s National Security Council through the course of 2017.