US rivalry with China in Indo-Pacific ‘needs greater economic focus’
- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi says Asean members do not want to take sides but still hope the region can benefit from great power competition
- Washington needs to balance its security approach with a strong economic agenda for Asia and the Pacific, she adds
The US needs a stronger economic agenda for the Indo-Pacific region, as opposed to its current focus on security issues, according to Indonesia’s foreign minister.
“Competition is inevitable [and] healthy competition is OK. But if it becomes rivalry and others are forced to choose sides, that makes things different,” she said.
Marsudi added that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – representing more than 600 million people – had the capacity to try to maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the face of the rivalry between the two giants.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shifted US attention to Europe, Washington’s latest Indo-Pacific strategy – issued on February 11, just before the Ukrainian war – reiterated its intention of containing China’s growing economic influence and military in Asia.
But the document’s lack of a strong economic agenda was a concern, and people in developing countries would suffer more from the rising prices of energy and food caused by the war in Ukraine, Marsudi said.