US President Joe Biden on Monday announced the launch of a new Asia-Pacific trading network during a visit to Japan. The framework, which includes an initial 13 countries, including India and Japan, has been touted as a counterweight to China's aggressive expansion in the region.
"The United States and Japan, together with 11 other nations, will be launching" the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, or IPEF, Biden said at a press conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
"This framework is a commitment to working with our close friends and partners in the region on challenges that matter most to ensuring economic competitiveness in the 21st century," he said.
The signatories joining the US in the IPEF are Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Along with the US, they represent 40 percent of world GDP.
The countries said in a joint statement that the pact will help them collectively “prepare our economies for the future” following disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Unlike traditional trading blocs, there is no plan for IPEF members to negotiate tariffs and ease market access, which is increasingly unpalatable to US voters fearful of undermining homegrown manufacturing.
Instead, the programme foresees integrating partners through agreed standards in four main areas: the digital economy, supply chains, clean energy infrastructure and anti-corruption measures.
Biden has pushed to rapidly rebuild the strategic military and trade alliances weakened under his predecessor Donald Trump since taking office in 2021.
IPEF is intended to offer US allies an alternative to China's growing commercial presence across the Asia-Pacific region.
Biden says the US will defend Taiwan
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Biden said the US would defend Taiwan militarily if Beijing invaded the self-ruled island, warning China was "flirting with danger".
"That's the commitment we made," he said when asked if Washington would intervene militarily against a Chinese attempt to forcibly take control of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province to be unified with the mainland.
"We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it... but the idea that (Taiwan) can be taken by force is just not appropriate.
"It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine."
In his strongest comments to date on the issue, Biden directly linked the outcome of Western attempts to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion with lessons likely to be learned in Beijing regarding Taiwan.
It's "important that Putin pay a price for his barbarism in Ukraine", Biden said. "Russia has to pay a long-term price."
This is "not just about Ukraine", Biden said, because China is watching to see if Western pressure on Russia slackens off.
Taiwan's foreign ministry thanked the US for its support and said the government will continue to boost its defence and deepen cooperation with countries including the US and Japan to protect its safety.
In Beijing, Biden’s comments were met with defiance as China vowed to protect its interests in Taiwan.
"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. "The Taiwan issue is a purely internal affair for China," he added.
China's Communist Party has never controlled self-ruled Taiwan but it views the island as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if needed.
An 'open platform'
China has criticised the Indo-Pacific framework – which includes the "Quad" countries of India, Japan, Australia and the US – as an attempt to create a closed club.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has rejected China's concerns, telling reporters "it is by design and definition an open platform".
Sullivan however said China has not been brought into the initial line-up despite being an important link in microchip supply chains.
He said that nevertheless the US is "looking to deepen our economic partnership with Taiwan, including on high-technology issues, including on semiconductors and supply chains."
This will happen, however, only "on a bilateral basis".
There is no political will in Washington for returning to a tariffs-based Asia trade deal following Trump's 2017 withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a huge trading bloc that was revived, without US membership, in 2018 as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
