WASHINGTON, March 23 (Bernama-Sputnik) - The United States wants to have a strong presence in the economically booming Indo-Pacific region amid large Chinese investments, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Foreign Relations Committee.
"We have a region that is driving - basically 75 per cent of the economic growth over the last five or six years. So this is vital to us as it happens. China invests about 50 per cent of its assistance programmes and its economy and diplomatic resources in the Indo-Pacific so we [should] be there first and foremost," Blinken said on Wednesday.
The US may not be able to match China person per person but the United States will be engaged in ways unseen before, he added.
Earlier in March, the White House announced that US President Joe Biden's budget proposal for 2024 seeks US$9.1 billion for the United States deterrence initiative in the Pacific region, reported Sputnik.
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