A perspective from China and the region’s countries. By Orçun Göktürk, Beijing / China Donald Trump’s return to the White House could reshape the balance in Southeast Asia. The revival of the Trump administration’s “Indo-Pacific” strategy carries significant risks not only for China but also for other regional countries. For traditional US allies like Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India, a stronger ...
By Orçun Göktürk * The US Secretary of State Blinken was in Beijing for a two-day visit. The scheduled visit in February of this year was postponed due to the “spy balloon” controversy at that time. The first high-level visit by the US administration in almost five years was greeted with “low-level protocol” from the Chinese government. Blinken was welcomed ...
By Orçun Göktürk The 20th Shangri-La Dialogue, held in Singapore from June 2 to 4, revealed important clues about US strategy for NATO expansion in the Asia-Pacific. Originally Chinese, the word Shangri-La means “heaven on earth” or “utopia”. Some have called the meeting “Asia’s Munich Security Summit”. The organizer is the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based “think ...
By Orçun Göktürk * Terms contain a great historical-scientific and even class distinction. The Biden administration continues the same “Indo-Pacific” rhetoric that the US officially changed during the Trump era. Of course, some might say that there is a geographical difference between the two. But the nightmare of the American political elites, the “Asian Age in the 21st Century”, also ...
By Orçun Göktürk * The US and China are once again engaged in conflict in the Pacific after Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan. The problem is not just a provocation of the US playing the Taiwan card. If we take a comprehensive look, the only goal of the US in supporting the separatist ...
British Foreign Minister Liz Truss made at an important meeting in London on April 27 the following statement: “NATO must have a global perspective. We need to avert threats in the Indo-Pacific by working with allies like Japan and Australia to ensure the Pacific is protected.” “We need to ensure that democracies like Taiwan can defend themselves,” she added. (1) ...
By Adem Kılıç * The world is going through tough times with the Russia-Ukraine war, the most chaotic conflict of the last period that was shaken by the pandemic. As the world was going through a new structuring process in the light of the freshly formed balances with the beginning of this war, a similar problem, the Taiwan issue, began ...
Following the QUAD meeting on presidential level between the US, Australia, Japan and India, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin have started their first overseas trip. Both Secretaries are visiting Japan and South Korea, highlighting US focus on Indo-Pacific. In their meetings with Japanese and South Korean counterparts, talks were held also on ...
By Mehmet Emre Öztürk The informal QUAD-Group (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), comprised of the US, India, Australia and Japan, has held a virtual meeting on presidential level on March 12 in its quest for an Indo-Pacific alliance. The process, described by the US as “historic”, aims to institutionalize the QUAD and create an alliance against China in the Indo-Pacific. The US ...
The Trump Administration has declassified a basic document on its policy towards China during its last days on government, on January 5th, 2021. The National Security Council, headed by H.R. McMaster, wrote this document, titled The United States Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific (USSFIP), on February 15th, 2018 as a Memorandum to the US government. The document can be read ...