Info-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), TTP 2.0?
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The USA used to have a strategy and a plan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to bind the Asian Pacific countries with the USA to counter the China's "One Road, One Belt" initiative to expand influence outwards into the world. Then Trump quit the TPP, leaving the region open to China. Now Biden is trying to fix that strategic blunder.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-japan-idUSKCN2N8035
... Biden on Monday plans to roll out the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), a programme to bind regional countries more closely through common standards in areas including supply-chain resilience, clean energy, infrastructure and digital trade.
Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since former President Donald Trump quit a multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, leaving the field open to China to expand its influence.
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Yeah, that is big news here. Not a real trade agreement, but a way to incent the countries to work together. Overall, a good step.
This was recently discussed during the ASEAN summit that just finished in Washington DC.
Goes along somewhat with a US pledge of USD$150 million to ASEAN for "infrastructure, security, pandemic preparedness and other efforts aimed at countering the influence of China."
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IPEF does not include Taiwan. Separate talk with Taiwan underway.
