Renewed alliances strengthen US approach in Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell says
- ‘Unprecedented’ alignment with Europe and growing engagement with Asian countries will help remedy past mistakes, says White House’s Indo-Pacific coordinator
- Campbell’s remarks come ahead of US-Asean meetings hosted by US President Joe Biden, which start on Thursday
The White House’s coordinator for the Indo-Pacific said the United States would fix past mistakes in the region with what he saw as an “unprecedented” alignment with Europe and growing engagement with Asian countries.
Kurt Campbell, in a speech to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, said the administration of US President Joe Biden has seen an “explosion of dialogue and engagement with Europe on the Indo-Pacific” that he expects will eventually overturn limitations faced by previous presidents.
“One of the major challenges, I would say, mistakes that were made, was a sense that we were somehow pivoting away from Europe,” said Campbell, who was a key architect of former president Barack Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” policy.
“There is a deep sense that we are now moving and engaging together not just in Europe, at the time of these enormous challenges in Ukraine, but also thinking constructively about strategy and approaches to the Indo-Pacific going forward.”
He added: “Several administrations in succession in the United States have tried this effort to launch more fundamental efforts, policies, frameworks in Asia, East Asia, Indo-Pacific, and found themselves stymied or misdirected or directed towards other pursuits. And that has been something that I think all of us are deeply aware of in the formulation and execution of policy.”