India joins Biden’s new trade initiative for Indo-Pacific

Tags: International Relations International News

US President Joe Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) along with 12 initial partners in Tokyo on May 23.

• The initial partner countries are India, Australia, Japan, Brunei, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

• These 13 countries together represent 40% of the world's GDP.

• About IPEF initiative

• It is expected to focus on four main pillars including trade, supply chain resilience, clean energy and decarbonisation, and taxes and anti-corruption measures.

• The group includes seven of the 10 members of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and all four Quad countries and New Zealand.

• India will work closely with other IPEF countries to build an inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

• The main roles of the IPEF in the Indo-Pacific will be to set and adhere to standards for the digital economy and cross-border data flows and data localization.

• About  Indo-Pacific

• It covers half of the world's population and more than 60 percent of the global GDP.

• It is a geopolitical region that spans two regions of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

• Extending from the west coast of the United States of America to the west coast of India, the Indo-Pacific is a regional structure of 24 countries.

• It includes the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, western and central Pacific Ocean.