1. ADVANCE A FREE AND OPEN INDO-PACIFIC
Our vital interests and those of our closest partners require a free and open Indo-Pacific, where governments can make their own sovereign choices, consistent with their obligations under international law; and where seas, skies, and other shared domains are lawfully governed. Our strategy, therefore, begins with building resilience within countries, as we have done in the United States. In the region, that includes our efforts to support open societies and to ensure Indo-Pacific governments can make independent political choices free from coercion; we will do so through investments in democratic institutions, a free press, and a vibrant civil society. The United States will bolster freedom of information and expression and combat foreign interference by supporting investigative journalism, promoting media literacy and pluralistic and independent media, and increasing collaboration to address threats from information manipulation. Consistent with the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, we will also seek to improve fiscal transparency in the Indo-Pacific to expose corruption and drive reform. Through our diplomatic engagement, foreign assistance, and work with regional organizations, the United States will be a partner in strengthening democratic institutions, the rule of law, and accountable democratic governance. And we will work with partners to stand up to economic coercion.
Indo-Pacific nations are helping to define the very nature of the international order, and U.S. allies and partners around the world have a stake in its outcomes.
Beyond individual countries’ borders, the United States will also work closely with like-minded partners to ensure that the region remains open and accessible and that the region’s seas and skies are governed and used according to international law. In particular, we will build support for rules-based approaches to the maritime domain, including in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
We will also work with partners to advance common approaches to critical and emerging technologies, the internet, and cyber space. We will build support for an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet; coordinate with partners to maintain the integrity of international standard bodies and promote consensus-based, values-aligned technology standards; facilitate the movement of researchers and open access to scientific data for cutting-edge collaboration; and work to implement the framework of responsible behavior in cyber space and its associated norms.
