US will increase economic engagement with Asian nations, White House official says
- Kurt Campbell, President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, says ‘2022 will be about these engagements comprehensively across the region’
- Move is a component of Biden’s approach of strengthening alliances and partnerships to counter China
The United States will step up economic engagement with countries in Asia in 2022, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said this week.
Campbell, a key official shaping the Biden administration’s Asia policy, said that Washington would push for a more comprehensive approach in its Asian engagements in the coming year amid its continuing rivalry with China.
“That’s an area where the United States, indeed, needs to step up its game,” Campbell said on Thursday at a virtual event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In addition to more traditional diplomatic and military engagement, Campbell said that the US would accelerate efforts on economic ties, and that such engagement must include the setting of digital and technological standards.
“We’ve got to make clear that not only are we deeply engaged diplomatically, militarily, comprehensively, strategically – that we have an open, engaged, optimistic approach to commercial interactions, investment in the Indo Pacific,” he said.
“I think we well understand inside the Biden administration that 2022 will be about these engagements comprehensively across the region,” Campbell added.
