The Indo-Pacific Construct: Implications for Australia

Southeast Asia: Actual Problems of Development. 2021. Vol. 4. No. 4(53). P. 201–211.

Anastasia A. Gorbatko

The paper examines Australia’s perspective through the prism of the Indo-Pacific region as a US-centric geopolitical con- struct. Starting from a reveal of major reasons behind Canberra’s receptiveness of the Washington-driven Indo-Pacific narrative, the paper discusses Australia’s reaction to the revival of the idea of Indo- Pacific region by the Trump administration 2017 to finally turn to the factor of the PRC’s mega-strategy Belt and Road Initiative in shap- ing the Australian policy, including its Indo-Pacific dimension. The author argues that while in a short-term perspective Australia may benefit from participating in the development of the US-led initia- tives with a pronounced anti-Chinese component, like the Indo- Pacific region with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) as its main institutional platform, as well as the trilateral security alliance AUKUS, this policy course will be detrimental to Canberra’s long- term interests.

Keywords: Китай, США, China, Австралия, Australia, Indo-Pacific region, US, Индо-Тихоокеанский регион, Belt and Road Initiative, Инициатива «Пояс и Путь», Южно-Тихоокеанский регион, Indo-Pacific Concept, South Pacific region