AMERICA'S STRATEGIC SHIFT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

A number of U.S. government documents, including the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy during the administration of President Donald Trump have categorically contended that Southeast Asia is central to the U.S Indo-Pacific strategy. The geostrategic focus on the region and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), that represents the mutual interests of the countries there, has been the highlight of the U.S. approach to the Indo-Pacific.

- MONISH TOURANGBAM

The Indo-Pacific combines the geopolitical and geo-economic spaces of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and recently, the Trump administration has renamed its Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command. America’s strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific like India, Japan and Australia have equally reiterated the centrality of Southeast Asia and the ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific. This centrality is not just rhetoric. Geographically, Southeast Asia sits at the centre of the Indo-Pacific region. It is home to critical resources and some of the busiest sea-lanes of communication, vital for global trade and transit, passes through this region. Besides, it is currently the ground zero of the U.S.China strategic competition, for unchallenged primacy in the larger Indo-Pacific region.