President Joe Biden on Monday launched a new trade deal with 12 Indo-Pacific nations aimed at strengthening their economies as he warned Americans worried about high inflation that it was “going to be a haul” before they feel relief. The president said he does not believe an economic recession is inevitable in the U.S. Biden, speaking at a news conference after holding talks with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, acknowledged the U.S. economy has “problems” but said they were "less consequential than the rest of the world has.” Also read:Biden to lay out in Japan who's joining new Asia trade pact He added: “This is going to be a haul. This is going to take some time," even as he rejected the idea a recession in the U.S. was inevitable. The comments came just before Biden's launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a new trade deal his administration designed to signal U.S. dedication to the contested economic sphere and to address the need for stability in commerce after disruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nations joining the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework are Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Along with the United States, they represent 40% of world GDP. The countries said in a joint statement that the pact will help them collectively “prepare our economies for the future” following disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meeting with Kishida, Biden said the new framework would also increase U.S. cooperation with other nations in the region. The White House said the framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts. The details still need to be negotiated among the member countries, making it difficult for the administration to say how this agreement would fulfill the promise of helping U.S. workers and businesses while also meeting global needs. Critics say the framework has gaping shortcomings. It doesn’t offer incentives to prospective partners by lowering tariffs or provide signatories with greater access to U.S. markets. Those limitations may not make the U.S. framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the U.S. bailed out. China, the largest trading partner for many in the region, is also seeking to join TPP. “I think a lot of partners are going to look at that list and say: ‘That’s a good list of issues. I’m happy to be involved,’” said Matthew Goodman, a former director for international economics on the National Security Council during President Barack Obama’s administration. But he said they also may ask, “Are we going to get any tangible benefits out of participating in this framework?” Kishida hosted a formal state welcome for Biden at Akasaka Palace, including a white-clad military honor guard and band in the front plaza. Reviewing the assembled troops, Biden placed his hand over his heart as he passed the American flag and bowed slightly as he passed the Japanese standard. Kishida said at their meeting that he was “absolutely delighted” to welcome Biden to Tokyo on the first Asia trip of his presidency. Along with Biden, he drove a tough line against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying it “undermines the foundation of global order.” Biden, who is in the midst of a five-day visit to South Korea and Japan, called the U.S.-Japanese alliance a “cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific" and thanked Japan for its “strong leadership” in standing up to Russia. The White House announced plans to build the economic framework in October as a replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the U.S. dropped out of in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump. Kishida, while welcoming the new Biden trade pact, said he hoped Biden would reconsider the United States' position on TPP. Also read:Biden starts Asia trip with global issues and tech on agenda “Our position remains unchanged,” Kishida said. “We think it’s desirable for the United States to return to the TPP.” The new pact comes at a moment when the administration believes it has the edge in its competition with Beijing. Bloomberg Economics published a report last week projecting U.S. GDP growth at about 2.8% in 2022 compared to 2% for China, which has been trying to contain the coronavirus through strict lockdowns while also dealing with a property bust. The slowdown has undermined assumptions that China would automatically supplant the U.S. as the world's leading economy. “The fact that the United States will grow faster than China this year, for the first time since 1976, is a quite striking example of how countries in this region should be looking at the question of trends and trajectories,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The two leaders were also set to meet with families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago. The Japanese premier took office last fall and is looking to strengthen ties with the U.S. and build a personal relationship with Biden. He'll host the president at a restaurant for dinner. The launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, also known as IPEF, has been billed by the White House as one of the bigger moments of Biden's Asia trip and of his ongoing effort to bolster ties with Pacific allies. Through it all, administration officials have kept a close eye on China's growing economic and military might in the region. In September the U.S. announced a new partnership with Australia and Britain called AUKUS that is aimed and deepening security, diplomatic and defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Through that AUKUS partnership, Australia will purchase nuclear-powered submarines, and the U.S. is to increase rotational force deployments to Australia. The U.S. president has also devoted great attention to the informal alliance known as the Quad, formed during the response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed some 230,000 people. Biden and fellow leaders from the alliance, which also includes Australia, India and Japan, are set to gather in Tokyo for their second in-person meeting in less than a year. The leaders have also held two video calls since Biden took office. And earlier this month, Biden gathered representatives from nine of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Washington for a summit, the first ever by the organization in the U.S. capital. Biden announced at the summit the U.S. would invest some $150 million in clean energy and infrastructure initiatives in ASEAN nations. Taiwan — which had sought membership in the IPEF framework— isn’t among the governments that will be included. Participation of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, would have irked Beijing. Sullivan said the U.S. wants to deepen its economic partnership with Taiwan, including on high technology issues and semiconductor supply on a one-to-one basis. Biden also issued a stern warning to China over Taiwan, saying the U.S. would respond militarily if China were to invade the self-ruled island. “That's the commitment we made,” Biden said. The U.S. recognizes Beijing as the one government of China and doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, it maintains unofficial contacts with Taiwan, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, the capital, and supplies military equipment to the island for its defense. Biden’s comments were likely to draw a sharp response from China, which has claimed Taiwan to be a rogue province. A White House official said Biden’s comments did not reflect a policy shift.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that China’s increasingly assertive actions across the region make it more critical than ever for four Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad to cooperate to protect their partners and their people from Chinese “exploitation, corruption and coercion.” Pompeo made the remark at a meeting in Tokyo with the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia, who together make up the Quad. The talks were the group’s first in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began. Pompeo accused China of covering up the pandemic and worsening it, while threatening freedom, democracy and diversity in the region with its increasingly assertive actions. “It is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,” Pompeo said. “We see in the East and South China Seas. The Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait. These are just a few examples.” The talks came weeks before the U.S. presidential election and amid tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights. They follow a recent flareup in tensions between China and India over their disputed Himalayan border, while relations between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months. Japan, meanwhile, is concerned about China’s claim to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea. Japan also considers China’s growing military activity to be a security threat. Japan’s annual defense policy paper in July accused China of unilaterally changing the status quo in the South China Sea, where it has built and militarized manmade islands and is assertively pressing its claim to virtually all of the sea’s key fisheries and waterways. China has denied allegations of covering up the pandemic, saying it acted quickly to provide information to the World Health Organization and the world. It says the U.S. is the biggest aggressor in the South China Sea. Beijing also denies human right violations in its handling of Hong Kong and minority Muslims in Xinjiang, and accuses Western nations of meddling in its internal affairs. Earlier Tuesday, new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a meeting with the Quad diplomats that their “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” security and economic initiative is more important than ever amid challenges from the coronavirus pandemic. The international community faces multiple challenges as it tries to resolve the pandemic, and “this is exactly why right now it is time that we should further deepen coordination with as many countries as possible that share our vision,” Suga said, without directly criticizing China. Suga took office on Sept. 16, vowing to carry on predecessor Shinzo Abe’s hawkish security and diplomatic stance. Abe was a key driving force behind promoting the FOIP initiative, which Suga called “a vision of peace and prosperity of this region” and pledged to pursue. Japan and the U.S. have been pushing the FOIP as a way to bring together “like-minded” countries that share concerns about China’s growing assertiveness and influence. Pompeo, as well as Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and their Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, held talks after meeting Suga together. Pompeo earlier met one on one with his three counterparts, meetings in which according to the State Department reaffirmed the importance of cooperating among them to advance peace, prosperity and security in the Indo-Pacific. Pompeo in his talks with Payne shared concerns about “China’s malign activity in the region,” while agreeing on the importance of the Quad discussions for “the promotion of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the State Department. Motegi held a working lunch with Pompeo in which the Japanese minister said he expressed hope that Japan and the U.S. will lead the international community to achieve the FOIP. Pompeo attended the Quad meeting, but canceled subsequent planned visits to South Korea and Mongolia after President Donald Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19. The president was released Monday and returned to the White House. Pompeo was the only one who explicitly criticized China in opening remarks at the Quad meeting. Others used more nuanced language to describe the significance of promoting the concept of the FOIP as an inclusive, rule-based, democratic order that respects territorial sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes, rather than making allegations against China. Motegi said after the talks that the Quad members agreed to meet regularly and cooperate in infrastructure building, maritime security, cybersecurity and other areas, and exchange views on the situation in regional seas. Motegi said he proposed to other ministers that the Quad should broaden its cooperation with other countries. But each Quad member has its own political stance toward China and it would be difficult to agree on concrete steps even though they share a perception of China as a common threat, analysts say. Suga, who had been chief Cabinet secretary under Abe, told Japanese media Monday that he will pursue diplomacy based on the Japan-U.S. alliance as a cornerstone and “strategically promote the FOIP,” while establishing stable relations with neighbors including China and Russia. He said he also plans to promote the FOIP during a planned visit to Southeast Asia later this month. Japan sees the FOIP as crucial for assuring access to sea lanes all the way to Middle East, a key source of oil for the resource-poor island nation. Suga has little experience in diplomacy. Balancing between the US, Japan’s main security ally, and China, its top trading partner, will be tough, analysts say.