Session: Session 3
Date/Time: April 25, 2018 / 10:45-12:15

Moderator:
Simon Long, The Economist

Speakers:
James Choi, Embassy of Australia, Seoul
Vikram Doraiswami, Embassy of India, Seoul
Joseph Chin Yong Liow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU
Mark Lippert, Boeing International
You Ji, University of Macau

Panel Description
As the world’s economic “center of gravity” shifts east, the Indo-Pacific region has come to represent simultaneously immense opportunities and daunting challenges. The Indo-Pacific concept has been around for over a decade and has been associated with both the Obama and Trump administrations. But widespread skepticism over the validity of this concept, still poorly articulated, remains in the region. The rise of India as a regional power has checked China’s expanding influence, but increased competition for control over key maritime trade routes is heating up. At the same time, Indo-Pacific countries are bolstering trade ties, even as the U.S. pulls out of regional trade agreements. What are the key security challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region? Can Indo-Pacific countries strike a balance between a retreating America and a rising China? How can we differentiate between the three existing concepts of the region: Asia-Pacific, East Asia, and Indo-Pacific?