US comes a-courting in Asean as it pressures Beijing. What will it achieve?
- While Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit helped to rebuild ties after Donald Trump, he offered few details on Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy
- Analysts expect the renewed interest in Southeast Asia to continue into the new year amid growing US-China rivalry, but many want to see more actions, not words
However, Blinken’s visit did underscore and deliver the message that the United States is serious and committed about rebuilding Southeast Asian ties that were frayed, even neglected under former president Donald Trump’s administration.
Describing Blinken’s speech as a disappointment, Sam Baron, a Southeast Asia analyst at The Asia Group, said that although the US State Department had hinted that Blinken would provide further clarification about the Indo-Pacific strategy while in Indonesia, “frustratingly few details were provided”.
“Similarly, substantive details of the administration’s proposed Indo-Pacific economic framework are thin,” Baron noted.
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“This lack of clarity from the administration on both strategy and trade has led to a perception in some diplomatic circles that Washington is ‘all talk, and no action’, despite the unprecedented level of engagement carried out in the region over the past several months,” Baron added.