The top U.S. diplomat is calling for a greatly expanded budget for activities in the Indo-Pacific to counter communist China’s increasing aggression and fortify American ties in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a March 22 Senate appropriations hearing that the Biden administration is seeking an 18 percent increase to the State Department’s Indo-Pacific budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
The funds are necessary to increase the United States’ competitive edge, Blinken said, because the world is entering an era of competing visions that will reshape the character of the international order.
“We are meeting at an inflection point. The post-Cold War world is over, and there is an intense competition underway to shape, to determine what comes next,” he said.
US in Fight Against ‘Autocracy and Aggression’
Blinken said the hefty increase to the State Department’s purse would allow the administration to more effectively “outcompete” China’s communist regime as it attempts to rewrite the rules of the international order in lockstep with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.The “autocracy and aggression” demonstrated by Beijing’s and Moscow’s de facto strategic alliance could only be countered by a multinational suite of partners dedicated to peace, stability, and democratic values, according to Blinken.
“This budget will help us push back on advancing authoritarianism and democratic backsliding by strengthening democracies around the world, including through supporting independent media, countering corruption, and defending free and fair elections,” he said.
“It will allow us to pay our contributions to international organizations because we need to be at the table whenever and wherever new international rules that affect the livelihoods of our people are being debated and decided.”
Building alliances and partnerships is a central tenet of the administration’s defense, security, and Indo-Pacific strategies. Blinken said the United States needed to be in the room with important organizations to ensure success in that endeavor.
To that end, he noted that China’s communist regime was currently funding the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and gaining influence abroad by securing education and technology cooperation with other nations.
The United States had no voice in the body when the Trump administration left the organization in 2019 because of what it called an “anti-Israel bias.”
“We’re the largest contributor to the U.N. system, and yet, when we’re in arrears, our competitors and adversaries point to that and say the United States isn’t serious about it,” Blinken said.
“China, right now, is the single largest contributor to UNESCO. That carries a lot of weight, and we’re not even at the table.”
Because such diplomatic shortcomings intersect with international security issues such as the rise of communist China, the new proposed State Department budget contained innovative investments designed to “enhance” the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific by providing maritime security, digital technology, and energy infrastructure, he said.
By renewing its commitment to the regional powers of the Indo-Pacific and the international community more broadly, the nation was slowly but steadily strengthening its position worldwide, according to Blinken.
“Our unmatched network of alliances and partnerships has never been stronger,” he said.
“We’re expanding our presence in critical regions like the Indo-Pacific. And we’re leading unprecedented coalitions to confront aggression and address humanitarian crises worldwide.”
