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The grouping of India, Israel, UAE, and the USA dubbed “I2U2” is projected by commentators as the Quad for West Asia. I2U2 aims to encourage joint investments in six mutually identified areas such as water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security.
Speaking at Georgetown University about the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration’s national security strategy, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “We are trying creative arrangements all over the world. Creative, purposeful, and entrepreneurial ways like I2U2 which sounds a bit ridiculous by name (he said jokingly) but is a fascinating new partnership between India, Israel, the US and UAE– to work in areas of water space, health and food security.”The US “is working with a diverse range of governments with shared challenges that promote a common vision,” he said.
NSA Sullivan also hailed the Quad grouping which focuses on the Indo-Pacific for maritime domain awareness. Quad and partnership with pacific Island nations help to address illegal fishing practices and build capacity to respond to disasters, he highlighted in his remarks.
Earlier, as the Biden administration released a key policy document on national security, Security Advisor Sullivan noted that China represents America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge to the United States.
“Next, we recognize that in the geopolitical space, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) represents America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge. And while that will play out in the Indo-Pacific to a significant extent, there are global dimensions to the challenge as well,” Sullivan said during an on-the-record press call previewing the Biden-Harris administration’s National Security Strategy.
However, Sullivan said the security strategy also makes clear that the US avoid seeing the world solely through the prism of strategic competition and it intends not to try to divide the world into rigid blocks.
“We are not seeking to have competition tip over into confrontation or a new Cold War. And we are not engaging each country as simply a proxy battleground. We’re going to engage countries on their own terms and pursue an affirmative agenda to advance common interests and to promote stability and prosperity,” he said.
“We stand now at the inflection point, where the choices we make and the priorities we pursue today will set us on a course that determines our competitive position long into the future,” the document says. (ANI)
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