Some U.S. foreign policy experts believe that Mr. Campbell’s move to the State Department will help maintain momentum for some of Mr. Biden’s initiatives in the Indo Pacific. File
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U.S. President Joe Biden, on Wednesday, announced that he had nominated his Indo-Pacific policy chief Kurt Campbell for the Deputy Secretary of State position. The announcement, which was expected, will give Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team a renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific region in the face of competing strategic imperatives, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in West Asia.
Mr. Campbell is the architect of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy and a strong proponent of the India-U.S. relationship, which he called “the most important bilateral relationship for the U.S.” in this century. Some U.S. foreign policy experts believe that Mr. Campbell’s move to the State Department will help maintain momentum for some of Mr. Biden’s initiatives in the Indo Pacific.
“As President Biden moves toward election campaign mode, he is likely to travel less to the Indo-Pacific region or embark on major new initiatives. The Biden administration has already made major moves in Asia,” said Lisa Curtis, who leads the Indo-Pacific program at the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) and was the former senior director for South and Central Asia in the Trump administration’s National Security Council. Ms. Curtis cited initiatives like AUKUS – an Australia, U.K. and U.S. security partnership – Mr. Biden’s promotion of the Quad, and the first-ever trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan, and Korea trilateral summit.
“The focus in Asia next year will be to maintain the momentum of these initiatives and to carry through their implementation, and Kurt can do that from the State Department,” Ms. Curtis told The Hindu. Mr. Campbell, a long-time Asia and Pacific expert, has worked at the State Department before, where he was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009-2013.
Mr. Blinken is expected to step down from his role after completing his term in January 2025. It is rare for a U.S. President to appoint someone as Secretary of State for more than four years.
