Washington: After two decades of focus on Afghanistan, this week’s US withdrawal allows the state to divert its concentration to the east, where China’s superpower rivals are now the number one priority.
In the indication of Washington’s strategic turn, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Southeast Asia last week even when the US withdrawal from Afghanistan moved to the turbulent final, hoping to strengthen the US Allied pushback to the giant.
Harris accused Beijing of “actions …
threatening international order-based orders,” especially aggressive claims regions in the South China Sea.
The tour in Singapore and Vietnam was seen as an attempt by President Joe Biden’s administration to convince the Asian allies, which was left rather disapried by US withdrawal from Kabul after the fall of the Afghan government which was suddenly released for almost 20 people.
Years.
Ryan Hass, a foreign policy specialist at Brookings Institute, said that the US withdrawal disaster from Afghanistan would not have a lasting impact on Washington’s credibility in Asia.
“Standing America in Asia is a function of shared interests with its partners in balancing China’s rise and in preserving old peace that has supported rapid development in the region,” Hass said.
“There are no factors that reduced by events in Afghanistan,” he told AFP.
Uratah US to East Asia will “open up new opportunities” for the US and its partners in the region, he told AFP.
Pampata Adam Smith, Head of the Armed Forces Committee at the House of Representatives, said that the US exit from Afghanistan would not change the balance between the United States and Chinese super countries.
He refused suggestions on Tuesday that the appearance of a momentary weakness that was seen by America could encourage China to attack Taiwan or Russia to attack Ukraine, for example.
“I think anyone who thinks that their [Russian or Chinese] calculations have changed significantly because we just attracted 2,500 last troops from Afghanistan – I really didn’t see it,” Smith said during an online Brookings conference.
“There are many other problems that enter whether Russia and China will feel like they have the ability to be aggressive in parts of the world,” he said.
Derek Grossman, a former Pentagon official and now a defense expert at Rand Corporation Think Tank, said China could seek profits in fostering good relations with the Taliban, the groups of US militant Islamic groups fought for 20 years before they again seized power in Afghanistan August 15 .
Beijing can decide quickly to recognize the Taliban government, even as Washington and other Western governments survive because they hope to convince Afghan’s new rulers to moderate their hardline policies.
“China, as a new great force in competition with the United States, might want to show the unique way to deal with world events, which tend to be – often reflexively – the opposite of the Washington approach,” Grossman said.
“Recognizing the Afghanistan managed by the Taliban will contribute to the perception that it is Beijing, and no longer Washington, who now sets an agenda and forms a regional order in the future,” he said.