Indo-Pacific economic framework cynical manipulative tool of US

Karl Haushofer's theory of the "Indo-Pacific" has gained currency thanks to Washington's bid to erase Asia from the geostrategic map. He coined the term in a bid to forge an anticolonial identity among the British, American and Western European colonies in South, East and Southeast Asia with the aim of undermining the Western rivals of interwar Germany. In a somewhat ironic flip of that coin, Washington, with the intention of undermining what it regards as the US' rival, envisions its Indo-Pacific strategy as a sort of crypto-colonization of Asia.

Which explains why many Asian countries, including those hedging their bets by participating in it, remain wary of the strategy. And this remains the case despite the fanfare with which US President Joe Biden launched the latest vehicle for the strategy on Monday, as all involved know the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity is more political than economic, more unilateral than multilateral, and more exclusive than inclusive.

They are well aware that as a geopolitical tool to carve China out of the regional economic and cooperation pattern, what Washington wants the IPEF to bring to the Asia-Pacific is not unity and development but division and regression. A complex and multi-tiered network of economic cooperation has taken shape in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation regional forum, there are also the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is the world's largest regional free trade agreement.