America, Europe, and Indo-Pacific Strategy

​Lee Daewoo 

(delee@sejong.org) 

Director of the Department of Diplomatic Strategy Studies, 

the Sejong Institute​

​English Abstract

The Biden administration has not only inherited the Trump administration’s China policy but also both strengthened and expanded the Indo-Pacific Strategy through its emphasis on democracy, human rights, freedom, peace, security, and the rule of law. Biden has held a series of summit meetings with various, geographically distant European nations. Through them, he has called for cooperation to maintain the status quo and check China’s South China Sea policy and the East China Sea policy that deal with the Taiwan Strait and the Belt and Road Initiatives. European nations agreed to do so as they in fact regard China as a systemic threat and an economic competitor. China is considered a threat because changes within the Indo-Pacific region have an immediate impact on continental Europe’s prosperity and security. It must be also noted that China’s Belt and Road Initiatives aims to expand to Europe. Small European nations want to avoid falling into the debt trap and/or China's influence.

France established France and Security in the Indo-Pacific in 2018, and Germany introduced Policy guidelines for the Indo-Pacific in 2020. The U.K also has expressed its concern about regional security in its Global Britain in a competitive age of March 2021. Meanwhile, Belgium, Netherlands, and Sweden have been in the process of devising their own China policies. The number of policies targeted to check China may increase.

It is true that European nations will consider their economic relations with China—like any other nation. However, they are more likely to choose liberal democracy over their economic relations with China because Europe’s economy depends more on intra-regional trade. Therefore, European nations are likely to maintain and/or strengthen the international order of liberal democracy, headed by the U.S.  

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