US pivot to Asia should promote cooperation, and include joining CPTPP

ALL eyes now seem to be on the American strategic pivot to the Indo-Pacific region. First came the news about growing cooperation between the US, the UK and Australia in the form of a new military pact, Aukus, involving the sale of nuclear-powered submarines.

Then on Friday US President Joe Biden held the first in-person meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, better known as "the Quad", an informal strategic forum of the US, Australia, Japan, and India - democratic countries with vested interests in countering the China surge in Asia. President Biden was joined at the White House in Washington, DC, by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Indian leader Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for a two-hour meeting during which they stressed their goal of "promoting the free, open, rules-based order, rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion, to bolster security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond". "We stand for the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values and territorial integrity of states," the four leaders said in a statement that seemed to be directed at China, although China wasn't specifically mentioned.

The Quad has morphed into top-level strategic cooperation on security, tech, and the global economy by four governments who have taken an increasingly more combative view of China' growing assertiveness in the region, and have called for maintaining the maritime rules-based order in the East and South China Sea.