India will be focus of U.S. diplomacy in 2023: Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell

• Published date: 17 January 2023
• Publication title: Central Asian News Services

White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, Kurt Campbell highlighted the growing stature of India in the world and said that the US remains "bullish" on India, adding, "Our interests are to see India playing an ever larger, responsible role in almost everything that we're doing," Nikkei Asia reported.

At Indo-Pacific Forecast 2023, an annual preview of political, security, and economic developments held by the Washington think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Kurt Campbell said America and its allies are looking at India as a country they want to draw more into the Indo-Pacific.

Emphasizing India's geo-strategic location and geo-political importance, Campbell on Thursday said that New Delhi will be the focus of Washington's diplomacy in 2023 while envisioning a network of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.

Indo-Pacific Coordinator said that America's traditional "hub and spoke" model of alliances -- a collection of bilateral agreements with the US at the centre -- is shifting to a new phase, which will be a network of alliances and partnerships. As a member of the Quad --along with the US, Japan and Australia -- and as this year's president of the Group of 20, India is expected to be the focus of US diplomacy.

The deputy assistant to the US President hinted at more Presidential and Vice Presidential visits to the region, saying that one of the most essential algorithms of Asia is "the importance of showing up.'

"We've got a lot of things that we're planning for 2023, active travel in the region," he said. The G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and the Quad summit in Australia, both in May, along with the G-20 summit in New Delhi in September are candidates for President Joe Biden to fly out. Biden will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco in November.

Campbell also said that the US is ready to assist India to diversify from its...