30 March 2023
Speakers
Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, National Security Council, White House
Moderator- Richard Fontaine, Chief Executive Officer, CNAS
Q&A
On balancing Europe and Asia
Q- How do you see the balance between Asia and the crisis in Europe?
Report on the challenge between India and China and how it’s impacting Indo-pacific. It’s a terrific piece and helps us better understand the region. The US is redirecting attention and resources to the Indo-pacific. This is going to be the most dynamic geographical region of the world in the 21st century without question. It is undeniably the dominate arena with strategic thought. This is the first time I think most strategic analysis would suggest this is the dominate arena.
War in Ukraine and how it’s linked the European theater to Pacific… we’ve got a war with desperate stakes. At the same time, Indo-pacific partners have joined in to the support of Ukraine for the first time ever in ways that are unprecedented. Ukrainian challenge represents a global challenge to the operating system… I’m optimistic.
On China and big picture approach
Q- What does the US want in terms of a relationship with China? What does the US want it to look like?
Strategy towards Asia, formulation and execution, we’ve thought about it for decades. Approach was often doing diplomacy with Beijing directly and the rest of the region would follow suit. And the there was a secondary school which believed it’d be better to work with allies and partners for direct engagement with China. Now there’s a dominate consensus to first start with working with allies ad partners.
We accept China as it exists. We’ve often tended to overestimate our ability to dictate how China would evolve. We recognize now the best steps we can take are working with allies and partners and preserving what we value. We are in a ne phase of our relationship with Beijing. Dominate framing around it is competition and we seek it to be peaceful competition.
There are areas we can work together in. Medical research… etc.…. They’ve been reluctant to talk with us about confidence building and predictability… We were working towards that and it was interrupted by the spy balloon. It is very much the American intention to keep lines of communication open.
On cooperation
Q- If there any cooperation going on currently?
We’ve been investing in partnerships, new venues for diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific… US is not in decline. We are here to stay and we’ll continue to play an important role. There have been questions about American power. We want to make clear our intention to continue playing a leading role. Not as a dominance but as a strategic partner in the region.
On disinformation
Q- How concerned are you about China pushing disinformation?
Russia and China making allegations about US biological efforts in the US and just outlandish things. We’re concerned. It doesn’t stop there. There are things happening in other countries too we have to pay attention to. When the Australians started paying attention to this they were shocked how much information China was pushing into their country. That’s also a thing for Canada. This is an area with significant need for more focus.
On India
Q- What role do you want India to play?
Our engagement broadly is with the region institutions. There are areas of interest focus. Most important bilateral relationship in 21st century, for me it’s the US and India. Highest ranking technologies just came to the US to show us where we can partner. We want more student engagements. We are working partnerships in space. India is a great power. We are not allies and will never be allies but they are a great partner and we want to encourage and support that and depend this relationship….
On US, Japan, Philippines relations
Q- This is breaking new ground. Greater opportunities for trilateral cooperation. Please address.
It’s remarkable and has stepped up in a lot of areas. I’m grateful for the work that’s been done. We are ambitious about the possibilities of the relationship. This is another area where China has overstepped and have taken actions that are concerning. In the very near future you’ll see a high level of engagement.
On possible call between President Biden and Xi Jinping
Q- When can we expect a call between President Biden and President Xi Jinping?
We’ve made very clear we’re ready to have that call and we’re prepared and we want to keep lines of communication open.
On space domain and Japan
Q-Comment on the relationship with the US and Japan in the space domain
We just concluded some space discussion in Tokyo. There are a number of people in the government that were involved for the first tie. They were shocked at the diversity of capabilities from weather, positioning, etc. It’s remarkable how much US and Japan has worked together. We expect that to increase in Artemis. Space is a domain where the potential for more engagement between the US and Japan is important. There are synergies that are real. What I’ve found interesting, it’s a larger observation, I find with almost every country that the door is open for collaboration on a range of topics. It’s a welcoming environment.
On Taiwan
Q- How does Taiwan fit into the Administration’s overall strategy?
Maintain peace. We’ve taken a number of steps. There’s remarkable leadership. We’ve brought other countries into the equation making clear peace and stability is important to more than just the US. We recognize that we face challenge but we’re determined to take the necessary steps.
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