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Strategic Objective
Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific through Enhanced Diplomacy, Security Cooperation and Development
Strategic Objective
Overview
The United States “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific reflects the recognition that the future security and prosperity of our nation will be significantly defined by events and developments in that region. The United States must enhance and deepen its strategic engagement and leadership role to influence and benefit from a rising Asia-Pacific. At a time when the region is building a more mature security and economic architecture to promote stability and prosperity, sustained, active U.S. engagement is essential. U.S. leadership will help strengthen that architecture and pay dividends for our security and prosperity well into this century. The U.S. goal in the Asia-Pacific is to establish a stable security environment, an open and transparent economic environment, and a political environment that respects universal rights and freedoms. Our efforts will yield benefits for the region and increase the economic prosperity and security of the United States.
Maintaining peace and security across the Asia-Pacific is central to global progress, whether through halting North Korea’s proliferation activities, defending freedom of navigation and managing growing tensions over territorial disputes, or ensuring transparency in the region’s military activities. Supporting trade liberalization and economic development in the region stands at the center of American economic and strategic interests, and is a key U.S. priority. U.S. economic vitality depends, in part, on the extent to which our private sector can access the opportunities offered by the Asia-Pacific’s growing consumer base. Open markets in the region provide the United States unprecedented opportunities for commercial engagement and expansion of trade and investment ties. Adherence to our nation’s values – in particular, our steadfast support for democracy and human rights – greatly enhances our credibility, stature, and authority. Strengthening and deepening people-to-people ties across the region underpins the goals of the rebalance.
While the Asia-Pacific is widely recognized as a region of economic dynamism, it is also home to 29 percent of the world’s poor and the site of 60 percent of the globe’s natural disasters. Many countries in the region face challenges associated with weak institutions, inadequate rule of law, and rising inequality. The United States seeks to help our partners in the region ensure that, as economies grow, the benefits of this growth are shared by those who are most in need.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The United States has strong and historic strategic ties and trade linkages with the Asia-Pacific, which is home to the world’s fastest growing economies. Treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand form the cornerstone of our strategic position in the Asia-Pacific. To meet transnational threats of terrorism, violent extremism, cybercrime, and nuclear, chemical, and biological proliferation, the United States supports Asia-Pacific partners as they adopt internationally recognized legal and policy frameworks, and build their capacity to deter and mitigate these pressing threats. In cooperation with the Department of Defense and other national security agencies, our diplomats and programs help maintain peace and security across the Asia-Pacific through efforts to achieve verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, halt North Korea's proliferation activities, maintain freedom of navigation, discourage aggressive acts, and promote increased transparency in military activities.
The United States’ comprehensive economic agenda for the region combines expansion of trade and investment with greater regional economic integration. U.S. trade and investment ties with the Asia-Pacific region underpin the nation's prosperity and influence across the region. The United States is promoting development of a rules-based regional economic and trade framework that provides an open and fair commercial environment. Concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, the centerpiece of our economic strategy in the region, is the most important step we can take to advance prosperity in the Asia-Pacific. The TPP, with 12 members uniting Asia and the Western Hemisphere across the Pacific Rim, will foster economic growth and facilitate regional economic integration as membership expands. In collaboration with other U.S. government agencies and the private sector, the Department will also build on past successes within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to foster trade and investment liberalization and strengthen regional economic integration, including initiatives on climate change and environmental protection, disaster resiliency, and health security. The Department of State is conducting sustained diplomatic efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among Asia’s biggest economies. We will increase U.S. development assistance to foster trade ties, entrepreneurial activity, cleaner and more secure energy, food security, and economic empowerment of women in the region. Continued U.S. support for Taiwan maintains peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, underpins economic and commercial relations with our 10th largest trading partner, and reinforces U.S. support for democracy and human rights.
The United States is modernizing its treaty alliances to provide the flexibility to effectively respond to traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The United States seeks to strengthen partner capabilities and policies to address shared challenges and to bolster a rules-based order that operates in accordance with international laws, norms, and standards. Strengthened partnerships with Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam contribute to regional stability and prosperity. A cooperative partnership with China will strengthen U.S. national security, promote trade and economic growth, and help address transnational challenges. The United States’ engagement with Burma supports and encourages its political and economic reforms and national reconciliation. Mongolia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island countries are important partners through their contributions to peacekeeping activities, UN votes, and efforts that align with our international economic and security priorities. People-to-people activities, including continued outreach to international exchange alumni, play a critical role in building support within these countries for sustained partnerships with the United States.
The United States engages regional institutions and groupings such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Regional Forum, East Asia Summit, APEC, Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI), and the Pacific Islands Forum to reinforce our bilateral relationships and advance our economic, political, and security interests with regional allies and partners. U.S. engagement with these bodies helps them establish and implement rules and norms consistent with the international norms that promote peace and stability, spur greater economic growth, and enable the region to respond more effectively to security threats and manage crises.
Across the Asia-Pacific, the United States is promoting democratic practices and improved governance, quality health and education, food security, strengthened disaster preparedness/emergency response, and improved environmental stewardship. Democratic development will contribute to greater civilian security, stability, and prosperity and stronger ties throughout the region. Strong democratic institutions and responsive governments provide the framework that paves the way for solid economic growth, improved health outcomes, greater food security, quality education, strengthened emergency response, adaptability to climate change, and stronger livelihoods overall.
Read Less...Progress Update
Reinvigorated Treaty Alliances:
In January 2014, the United States and the Republic of Korea signed a new Special Measures Agreement, which defines the Republic of Korea’s share of the stationing costs of U.S. troops on the peninsula for the next five years. In October 2014, the United States concluded a new conditions-based arrangement on the transfer of wartime operational control that will ensure the readiness of our combined forces to defend the Korean peninsula as the Republic of Korea continues to build up its own defense capabilities.
In April 2014, the United States and the Philippines signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which enables our militaries to more effectively collaborate on a range of issues, including disaster response.
In June 2014, President Obama and Prime Minister Abbott of Australia announced a Force Posture Agreement that supports the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and contributes to a U.S. force presence that is geographically distributed, operationally resilient, and politically sustainable. With Japan, the United States is negotiating to update our defense guidelines and realign our forces to address future challenges.
U.S. alliances and strategic partnerships in the Asia-Pacific will effectively deter against military and non-military threats to the region and the United States; resolve disputes peacefully; adopt common positions on regional and global priorities; and confront emerging challenges, including by working together to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Deepen ties with emerging powers, including China:
The United States established Comprehensive Partnerships with Vietnam and Malaysia, which will strengthen support for economic reform and facilitate development of new maritime capabilities in Vietnam and support expanded ties with Malaysia, a growing center of entrepreneurship and innovation. The United States and China are committed to continue negotiating a high-standard and comprehensive Bilateral Investment Treaty that embodies the principles of non-discrimination, fairness, and transparency. The United States seeks a sustained and substantive military-to-military relationship with China. In November 2014, President Obama and Chinese President Xi agreed to two military-to-military confidence building measures (CBMs), the first on rules of behavior and the second on notifications. They also agreed to complete consultations on an annex to the rules of behavior CBM on air-to-air encounters by the end of 2015. The United States and China have a critical role to play in combating global climate change. In November 2014, our presidents reaffirmed the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation on climate change and working together, and with other countries, to reach an ambitious agreement at the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris in 2015.
Regional Institutions:
In part due to U.S. support for ASEAN institutions, ASEAN and its member states are becoming more skilled and unified in their approaches to tackling significant regional challenges. In 2014, we took the rebalance global, with ASEAN stepping forward and addressing several issues of topical and global relevance. The November U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Naypyitaw, Burma saw ASEAN issue statements on climate change, ISIL, wildlife trafficking, and Ebola. These actions were precedent-setting for ASEAN, and we seek to build on that momentum in 2015 and beyond. Our engagement and support on a programmatic level reinforces the foundation by which we are able to consolidate and marshal ASEAN taking action in such a vein.
The LMI reinforces ASEAN integration by facilitating knowledge-sharing and linkages between the countries of the Southeast Asia Mekong sub-region, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The United States is expanding engagement with the Asia-Pacific’s regional institutions, in particular the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum, which has allowed us to work together on shared challenges -- from preventing human trafficking to countering violent extremism to stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and piracy.
Democracy:
Indonesia’s successful election and transition to power in 2014 of a reform-minded president positions the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy to continue its work to advocate for open government and democracy. USAID supports this effort through key programs like the “Southeast Asia – U.S. Partnership: Civil Societies Innovating Together,” which enables Indonesian civil society groups to share their expertise and experiences outside Indonesia, through democracy, governance, and human rights projects conducted across the region in partnership with civil society from the United States and Southeast Asia.
The governance and human rights situation in Burma has improved since 2011, but the Department of State and USAID remain focused on promoting further democratic reform – including constitutional reform – and facilitating efforts to advance the peace process. USAID supports civil society efforts region-wide to complement good governance principles through several key programs including the Global Labor Program with the Solidarity Center in Cambodia and the Legal Enabling Environment Program in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
Regional Economic Integration:
America’s prosperity and Asia’s prosperity are inseparable, and our shared prosperity and shared security are just as tightly linked. Two-way trade in goods and services with the region reached $2.5 trillion, accounting for 61.5 percent of overall U.S exports in 2013. More than one billion new Asian-Pacific middle class consumers are predicted to be generated during the next 20 years. The United States will continue to: 1) underwrite regional security; and 2) work to promote the adoption of a regional economic and trade architecture that is rules-based and provides an open, fair, and transparent framework that allows both U.S. and Asian businesses to benefit from growing trade and investment opportunities in the region.
The U.S. Trade Representative, supported by U.S. Embassies and the East Asia and Pacific region along with Department of State principals, is leading negotiation of the high standard TPP agreement with 11 partners in the region. It is difficult to overstate the strategic importance of countries with 40 percent of global GDP declaring – with one voice – that the rules of doing business in the 21st century are changing for the better. The TPP will strengthen America’s role as one of the most competitive, most innovative economies in the world, as well as one of the biggest trading partners and source and destination of foreign investment in the region.
The United States hosted APEC in 2011 for the first time in almost 20 years, and continue to bolster its role as the premier economic forum in the region for advancing free and open trade and investment, as well as for fostering cooperation in promoting sustainable and equitable growth. Notable achievements include reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment, cutting carbon emissions through deployment of clean energy technologies, and expanding economic opportunities for women. During 2015, the Department of State and USAID are working on initiatives and commitments that will (1) advance trade and investment liberalization, including lowering tariffs on environmental goods, promoting free and open trade of digital products, and improving the ease of doing business and supply chain performance; (2) protect the environment and increase cooperation on climate change, including work on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, conducting fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews, and promoting the use of renewable energy; and (3) support disaster resiliency, including ways to improve the movement of humanitarian goods across borders; enhance trade recovery systems; and strengthen the resilience of the global supply chain and much more.
The Department of State and USAID are strengthening the trade and investment environment in ASEAN countries, the recipient of almost $100 billion in U.S. goods and services exports and, taken together, the fourth largest export market for the United States. American companies remain the number one investor in ASEAN, as they have been for decades. And, ASEAN continues to attract more American investment than any other market in Asia. Technical support from USAID is helping ASEAN Member States prepare to launch the ASEAN Economic Community by late 2015, with a particular focus on helping implementation of the ASEAN Single Window, an initiative to simplify customs procedures across ASEAN that will save time and costs for U.S. exporters.
In addition, the Department of State and USAID are working to help build the capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in ASEAN and to link them to regional and global supply chains. The U.S. government's work on SMEs will have a particular focus in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to bridge the development gap and promote inclusive economic growth.
The Department of State, Department of Energy, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and Export-Import Bank of the United States continue to contribute to the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership (US-ACEP) that addresses energy poverty and energy security issues in the region. US-ASEP works to promote affordable, secure, and cleaner energy through a focus on power markets and interconnectivity, greater use of natural gas, renewables and cleaner energy, and sustainable development.
The Department of State and USAID will work to implement the Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor vision by fostering economic growth and regional trade in South Asia and encouraging stronger economic integration between South and Southeast Asia through infrastructure, energy, trade integration, and increased people-to-people ties
Strengthening People-to-People Ties:
The Department has increased outreach to youth, particularly in ASEAN member countries through the President’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), which has engaged youth through exchanges, digital engagement and skills workshops. Since its inception in December 2013, nearly 13,000 Southeast Asian youth have become YSEALI members and nearly 66,000 have been reached through social media platforms. Also, over 300 participants gained tangible skills at YSEALI regional workshops and over 100 youth went on exchanges to the United States. Starting in spring 2015, YSEALI will bring 500 youth to the United States annually for study and professional development. Additional regional workshops and grant competitions are also planned. The Department has also augmented English language teaching, educational advising, exchanges and cultural programs with allies and emerging partners, including Burma, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In November 2014, the United States opened a Peace Corps program in Burma.
Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality:
The Department of State has integrated women’s empowerment and gender equality in all economic forums across the Asia Pacific. Through APEC the Department is launching the Women’s Entrepreneurship in APEC network, which will collect best practices and support services and connect women’s entrepreneurship networks throughout the region, and enable the private sector to better connect women entrepreneurs to their supply chains. In addition, the Department is launching the APEC Women and the Economy Data Initiative, which will create a common base line for the region, identify gaps, and enable the region to measure progress. In the LMI Plan of Action, the Department has supported women entrepreneurs in the region via the WECreate initiative and APEC policy recommendations, explored trilateral cooperation with Japan, Australia, and the Republic of Korea, and bolstered civil society organizations throughout the region via more than $5.6 million in small grants.
USAID is implementing a number of programs aimed at addressing gender based violence and empowering women economically. For example, USAID is teaming with private sector companies like Hewlett-Packard and GAP, Inc. to provide skills training to women entrepreneurs and leaders. Through State and USAID's engagement with ASEAN, the U.S. government is working with the ASEAN Women's Entrepreneurship
Network (AWEN) to strengthen linkages among business women in the region and to promote economic and trade activities that enhance gender equality.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Strengthen America’s Foreign Policy Impact on Our Strategic Challenges
