US media: Virus "interrupts" Blinken's Southeast Asia agenda

According to the US "Wall Street Journal" website reported on December 15, after at least one of the entourage tested positive for the new crown virus, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken suspended his diplomatic visit to Southeast Asia on the 15th.

Improving relations with Southeast Asia has been a priority for the Biden administration. Analysts say the fast-growing region is an economic and strategic arena for Washington to compete with Beijing.

Officials and analysts argue that the United States wants to rely on a series of overlapping Asia-Pacific alliances, flexible multilateral alliances and bilateral treaties to stabilize the region. Blinken described this strategy in his speech in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital on the 14th.

The Biden administration is convinced that this multifaceted approach is the most viable strategy to prevent these fast-growing and populous countries from moving closer to China.

Officials and analysts in Southeast Asia say that, despite these claims of partnership and common interests, the world's largest economy has yet to provide the kind of direct help in terms of trade, development assistance and investment that can alleviate the region's many problems.

Evan Laxmana, an Indonesian who works as a senior researcher at the National University of Singapore, said that "a lot of what we need is still very specific, whether it's infrastructure, economic development" or poverty alleviation measures. "Whoever can provide us with the basis for solving the specific problem we need – rather than another presentation – is more attractive to us," the researcher said. ”

In 2015, the Obama administration sought to confront Beijing economically by signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed by 12 Pacific Rim countries, which Trump later abandoned and many Democrats have since expressed opposition. The Biden administration has said it will explore the establishment of an Asia-Pacific economic framework, but has not elaborated on measures to boost trade or significantly deepen economic integration in the countries concerned.

According to a U.S. government trade adviser, U.S. officials are working on a broad domestic agenda before they begin to lower international trade barriers or fund major development projects in Asia.

Source: Reference News Network