US, Indonesia Countering Red China’s Expansion Launch Security Dialogue on South China Sea

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Aug. 3 that the Biden administration is launching “strategic dialogue” with Indonesia. The two countries have pledged to cooperate on issues such as safeguarding freedom of navigation in the South China Sea to contain communist China’s expansion in the region. Indonesia is the largest country and biggest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Washington believes that ASEAN plays a key role in curbing the Chinese communist regime’s expansion in Asia. Although the two countries established a “strategic partnership” in 2015, this is their first strategic dialogue. Blinken met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 3 to stress the importance of the partnership between the two countries. “The U.S.-Indonesia strategic partnership is based on a fundamental belief in democracy, economic growth driven by innovation, and a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific,” the State Department …