During the tour spread over 12 days, Trump will also be visiting South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The Trump administration today defended the use of „Indo-Pacific“ phrase instead of „Asia Pacific“, saying it captures the importance of the rise of India with which the US has strong and growing ties.
„We have strong and growing ties with India. We talk about ‚Indo-Pacific‘ in part because that phrase captures the importance of India’s rise,“ a senior White House official told reporters in Tokyo, as US President Donald Trump touched down in Japan, kicking off a marathon Asia tour.
During the tour spread over 12 days, Trump will also be visiting South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
„It (Indo-Pacific) captures the importance of the maritime free commons that allow our security and our prosperity to continue,“ said the official, while responding to queries on the increasing use of the phrase „Indo-Pacific“ by the Trump Administration, its talk about free and open trade in the region and how the Chinese should regard that.
And the strategy is „certainly“ not to contain China. „Containment, certainly not,“ the White House official said on condition of anonymity.
Reaffirming that the United States is a Indo-Pacific power, the official said America’s security and prosperity depends on the US maintaining access for free flow of commerce to this region, because it is a Pacific nation.
