The US will “maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific,” President Joe Biden emphasised in his 65-minute address to a joint session of Congress on 28 April. The rationale behind this military buildup is “not to start conflict – but to prevent one,” he asserted. How could Washington's new strategy play out in the region?
Speaking in front of Congress on Wednesday, Joe Biden emphasised the necessity of the military buildup in the Indo-Pacific while outlining the White House's new China strategy: “In my discussion with President Xi, I told him that we welcome the competition – and that we are not looking for conflict,” he said, pledging to “defend American interests, target China's “unfair trade practices” and apparent “human rights” violations.
Pentagon's Strategic Shift
Washington's planned withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 2021 is also a recognition that the US needs to fully pivot to Asia, according to the professor: “No more long wars in faraway places with a little strategic advantage.”
Meanwhile, the US Navy's special operations forces are also switching the focus from counter-terror actions from the Middle East and Central Asia, to “global threats.” Speaking to the Associated Press on Wednesday, top US SEALs commander Rear Adm. H. Wyman Howard III said that the Navy is returning “to sea” as part of the Pentagon's broader plan to prioritise China and Russia as Washington's major challenges.
Biden's strategic shift is the continuation of…
