Indo-Pacific nations see Russian war on neighbour as a ‘cautionary tale’, says US official
- Kurt Campbell of the White House’s National Security Council reaffirms the US commitment to the region without mentioning China or Taiwan by name
- ‘We must not turn our attention away from the critical technological, trade, security, political and diplomatic fields in the Indo-Pacific’
Russia’s war against Ukraine is a major if unspoken concern for Indo-Pacific nations living on the periphery of China that are worried something similar could happen in their region, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
“Every country in Asia, in the Indo-Pacific, wants to ensure that Ukraine is a cautionary tale, that no one contemplates again, or in another theatre, some sort of operation that would be so destabilising and so destructive,” said Kurt Campbell, Indo-Pacific coordinator for the National Security Council, citing this as a critically important dynamic if not always verbalised. “I think that message has come through loud and clear.”
Campbell did not mention China by name, or self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade island that ultimately must be brought under its control.
While it is still too early to draw fundamental lessons from the Russian invasion, he added, the US remains committed to its pivot to the Asia-Pacific region despite the war in Ukraine and other diversions.
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“We understand that the dominant arena for engagement for the United States in the 21st century will be the Indo-Pacific and we are determined to not veer from that course,” he told a Centre for Strategic and International Studies conference.