The newly unveiled Indo-Pacific Framework will allow Washington to expand its economic leadership and help counter China's influence in the region, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2022) The newly unveiled Indo-Pacific Framework will allow Washington to expand its economic leadership and help counter China's influence in the region, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Monday.
Earlier in Tokyo on Monday, US President Joe Biden launched a new regional economic initiative together with 12 Indo-Pacific countries with a view toward tackling global inflation and containing China's economic influence.
"This framework will enable the United States to expand its economic leadership in the Indo-Pacific (IPEF) and work with our allies and partners in the region to secure our supply chains, increase clean energy production, and cooperate on the development and regulation of emerging technologies," Raimondo said.
Raimondo also said the trade pact would help reduce dependence on China among Indo-Pacific countries.
The pact "marks an important turning point in restoring US economic leadership in the region and presenting Indo-Pacific countries an alternative to China's approach to these critical issue," Raimondo told reporters during a press briefing.
The US commerce secretary noted that nearly 1 billion people in the Indo-Pacific will join the middle class over the next decade.
"Deepening our ties to the region is good for American workers and businesses and that of our partners in the region, and it is crucial to our ability to stay competitive," she said.
Washington regards the IPEF as a model for meeting modern challenges ranging from setting rules of the digital economy to ensuring sustainable supply chains. At the same time, some Indo-Pacific leaders see the new US initiative as an attempt to replace the existing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), from which Washington withdrew during the presidency of Donald Trump.
After the Biden administration came to power in the US in 2021, Japan renewed its efforts to bring the US back to the TPP. However, due to the creation of the new structure, Tokyo later announced its intention to work together with Washington for the creation of an economic order favorable to the region.
Biden arrived in Tokyo on Sunday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and take part in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) summit an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India - scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
