DOI: https://doi.org/10.36719/2706-6185/53/58-64
Sabir Ahmadov
Baku State University
PhD student
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5261-4553
sabir.ahmadov@bsu.edu.az
Three Communiqués and Their Impact on the Security
in the Asia-Pacific Region
Abstract
This paper examines the historical context and implications of the “Three Communiqués” for the security dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific region (APAC) occupies a central position in both China’s and the United States’ foreign policies due to its growing strategic and economic significance. To secure its interests across the region, Washington sought to normalize relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), widely regarded as the most powerful and influential actor in Asia, and to mitigate potential threats emanating from its rise. Favorable geopolitical conditions for this rapprochement emerged in the late 1960s, when the ideological and political split within the communist bloc created a conducive environment for both the United States and the PRC to re-evaluate their foreign policy priorities.
For China, rapprochement with the United States offered an opportunity to counterbalance the Soviet Union and gain a strategic partner, while for the United States, it represented a means of advancing its political, economic, and security objectives in the broader Asia-Pacific region. Since the early 1970s, a series of diplomatic milestones have marked the gradual normalization of Sino-American relations, the most significant of which was the signing of three joint communiqués between the two governments in the early 1970s and 1980s. These documents—collectively known in historiography as the “Three Communiqués”—constituted the cornerstone of modern U.S.–China relations. Moreover, these communiqués played a decisive role in shaping the security architecture of the Asia-Pacific region.
Keywords: USA, PRC, China, Taiwan, APAC, Asia-Pacific, communiqué