On May 23, U.S. President Joe Biden officially launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) in Tokyo. Conceived and led by the United States, the IPEF has 13 founding members, including Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. “The future of 21st century economy is going to largely be written in the Indo-Pacific…We are writing the new rules for 21st economy”, said Mr Biden at the launch event attended in person by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, while representatives from 10 other participating countries attended online.
In a joint statement, the participating countries said that the purpose of the IPEF is to “advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness for our economies. Through this initiative, we aim to contribute to cooperation, stability, prosperity, development, and peace within the region”.
During the East Asia Summit in October 2021, President Biden announced plans to launch a U.S.-led IPEF. Subsequently, U.S. officials conducted exploratory discussions with their traditional allies in the region. In February 2022, an Indo-Pacific strategy was revealed, which mentioned the formal launch of the IPEF in early 2022.
— source madhyam.org.in | Kavaljit Singh | May 27, 2022