Asia-Pacific to have Democrats’ full attention under Biden presidency

Foreign policy strategists say the US will engage more fully with its allies in the Asia-Pacific region during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in 2011 when they were vice-presidents of their respective countries. Foreign policy experts say Biden will be a ‘net positive’ for the Asia-Pacific region.

Foreign policy strategists say the US will engage more fully with its allies in the Asia-Pacific region during Joe Biden’s presidency, as Scott Morrison singles out a “free and open Indo-Pacific” as a significant challenge that can be helped by US leadership.

With China increasingly ­assertive in the Pacific and threatened bans on Australian wine, lobster, copper, sugar, timber and coal, the Prime Minister said America’s leadership was “indispensable” in meeting a number of global challenges and upholding the rules, norms and standards of the international community.

“Today, the world faces many challenges, including managing the COVID-19 pandemic, on both a health and economic front, ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and peace and ­stability,” he said.

Mr Morrison’s emphasis on the Indo-Pacific comes as China urged Australia to “reflect upon their deeds” and “do more things that are conducive to mutual trust”.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive Peter Jennings said Mr Biden would be a “net positive” for the Asia-Pacific region after Donald Trump’s four-year reign. He said Mr Biden would ­engage with allies and surround himself with a cabinet of competent people who would share that focus. “Biden will probably reach out to Beijing to ask the question ‘is there a way we can manage our differences better’. But my own guess, and I suppose it can only be a guess, is he’ll find that won’t lead to much because Xi Jinping is locked into his wolf-warrior diplomacy approach,” Mr Jennings said.

“America will end up still having some big structural differences with China and in a sense that’s good for Australia because it means we have someone to negotiate with. I think it’s high time we started to talk to the Americans and allies about ­Chinese coercion happening here. It may be happening in Australia first but it’ll happy to any country not toeing China’s line. Biden will be more open to that.”

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said Mr Morrison should “beat a path to the door of the Democrats” and use any recalibration in the US-China relationship to reset the Australia-China relationship.

“With Biden’s election, there will be an opportunity for a certain type of strategic reset ­between the US and China. It won’t become a soft strategy by the Democrats, far from it,” Mr Rudd told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“There is a bipartisan, hard line posture towards Beijing in the congress. But there will be an opportunity for some level of strategic reset.”

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, said China had very few friends left in America but there would be opportunities for the Morrison government to work with the Biden administration.

“The important thing with China is that we want a strong and prosperous China, but it’s convincing China that that works best when we all work together as part of a rules-based order,” Mr Sinodinos said on Insiders.

“The rules around trade, the rules around technology, the rules around the law of the sea.”