Humeyra Pamuk & David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – President Barack Obama will visit Southeast Asia next week to strengthen economic and security cooperation. This is part of his efforts to create a united front against China within the Indo-Pacific.

Antony Blinken (Secretary of State) will arrive in Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday. He will also be visiting Malaysia and Thailand for his first Southeast Asia visit since President Joe Biden assumed office in January.

The United States and China have made Southeast Asia a key strategic battlefield. These are the two world’s largest economies. China holds the majority of the South China Sea. This vital route links the region and China has increased military and political pressure upon Taiwanese self-rule, which Beijing regards as its own.

Blinken will follow Biden’s ambition of elevating engagement avec the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, (ASEAN), to “unprecedented”, focusing on strengthening regional economic infrastructure in the face of China’s “bullying” as well as discussing the president’s vision for an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Daniel Kritenbrink the U.S. top diplomat for Asia told reporters prior to the trip.

While the Biden administration views Southeast Asia as crucial to their efforts to counter China’s rising power, it has found that there is no formal framework for economic engagement. This was due to Trump’s withdrawal from a 2017 regional trade agreement. Beijing’s influence only increases.

    The administration has yet to spell out what exactly Biden’s envisaged economic framework will entail, although Kritenbrink said it would focus on trade facilitation, the digital economy, supply chain resiliency, infrastructure, clean energy, and worker standards.

Analysts and diplomats believe Blinken would try to lure countries to offer the possibility of U.S. production relocations from China to attract them. There was not any indication that the U.S. would be willing to give the market access the region desires.

Matthew Goodman is an expert in regional economics at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. He stated that “there is a burden on this administration that they deliver an economy strategy that shows our partners and allies that we are committed long-term economic engagement within the region.”

The “what’s been done so far” has shown promise, but needs to be further developed.

According to an Asian diplomat, the Biden administration has shown that it is serious about its commitment to Southeast Asia. This includes a number of high-ranking visits in this year’s calendar, participation at regional summits and continued security cooperation.

He stated, “But their economy doesn’t respond to China.” “The Chinese lead the world by at least 20 years. America must do more to assist less developed Southeast Asian countries. It isn’t enough to send aircraft carriers.

Biden senior administration officials including Kurt Campbell (Indo-Pacific policymaker) are aware that China needs to be more competitive economically. But any decision to rejoin Trump’s trade deal would have to be political fraught due to Trump’s promises to rebuild a country economy which critics believe is being threatened by such mechanisms.

Goodman suggested that Biden’s plan may still appeal to people despite its shortcomings.

“If you’re Vietnam, or you’re Indonesia, or Thailand, you want to make a play for being the place where Apple (NASDAQ:) could relocate its assembly capability,” he said.

So there is a lot of information in it that will be interesting for these countries. But, there are a lot more details that need to be given before they can be convinced.