With Orwellian hypocrisy, Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s main policy speech on his COVID-shortened ASEAN trip, delivered on Dec. 14 in his first stop, Indonesia, asserted the U.S. intention to turn “A Free and Open Indo-Pacific” into an integrated network of proliferating military/security “alliances"—more Quads, more Orcuses—through which to impose the “rules-based order,” and crush China and any other government that dares to develop with China.
Blinken spoke about “five core elements” of the State Department’s Indo-Pacific strategy, largely a rehash of the now-standard attacks on “Beijing’s aggressive actions,” which necessitate enforcing “the rules-based order,” “freedom of navigation,” and International Court at the Hague’s ruling against Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea, blocking Chinese investments, etc. Also included, of course, was the deployment of “anti-corruption” and “human rights” operations against any regional government which does not play ball with the strategy, with Burma the example cited.
Blinken’s second “core element” makes clear that the new U.S.-U.K.-Australia “AUKUS” alliance is envisioned as the first of many more such alliances to be cobbled together. “We will deepen our treaty alliances with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand…. We’ll foster greater cooperation among these allies, as well. That’s one of the things we’ve done by deepening U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation, and launching an historic new security cooperation agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom. We’ll find ways to knit our allies together with our partners, as we’ve done by reinvigorating the QUAD,” Blinken pronounced.
With the NATO clause: the U.S. will work “to connect our relationships in the Indo-Pacific with an unmatched system of alliances and partnerships beyond the region, particularly in Europe. The European Union recently released an Indo-Pacific strategy that aligns closely with our own vision. At NATO, we’re updating our strategic concept to reflect the Indo-Pacific’s growing significance, and address new threats, like the security implications of the climate crisis.” ASEAN is to be pulled in also; he noted that the G7’s ministers had met with their ASEAN counterparts for the first time in the recent UK meeting.
All this “allows us to assemble the broadest, most effective coalitions to tackle any challenge, to seize any opportunity, to work toward any goal,” Blinken deludes himself.
The final “core element” reiterates the military premise underlying the talk of “bolster[ing] Indo-Pacific security.” Policy is to be based on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s policy of “integrated deterrence … a strategy that more closely weaves together all our instruments of national power— diplomacy, military, intelligence—with those of our allies and our partners.”
