Our socio-economic-political world has traditionally been focused on the US and Europe. Witness the continued importance of NATO with respect to the Ukraine. However, notice that NATO is now considering including Asian countries as part of this alliance: Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

A few data points:

• 60% of the world’s population is in Asia: 4.7 billion.
• World growth will be in Asia.
  • Asia is the largest continental economy by both GDP Nominal and PPP in the world.
  • With $36.8 trillion in nominal terms, Asia accounts for 39% of the world GDP.
  • In PPP terms, its shares go close to 47.5% with Int. $68.7 trillion.
  • With $3.7 trillion, Asia will be the top contributor of the total global GDP increment in 2021, followed by North America ($2.7 trillion) and Europe ($2.6 trillion). In PPP terms, Asia accounts for 53.8% of the total global increase.
• Asia-Pacific will also be responsible for the overwhelming majority (90%) of the 2.4 billion new members of the middle class entering the global economy.
  • The rapid growth of the middle class will have significant economic and political effects as people become more demanding of businesses and governments, which will drive the need for capital to effect the desired changes.
  • The middle class is the engine of modern economies. About half of global economic demand is generated by household consumption, with half of this coming from the middle class.
  • Asia is the world’s consumption growth engine, a $10 trillion consumption growth opportunity over the next decade, half the global growth.
• The US 7th fleet is the Navy’s largest and is deployed in Asia.
  • It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S.
  • At any given time, there are 50-70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and more than 27,000 Sailors and Marines in Seventh Fleet.
  • Seventh Fleet’s area of operations spans more than 124-million square kilometers, stretching from the International Date Line to the India/Pakistan border; and from the Kuril Islands in the North to the Antarctic in the South.
  • Seventh Fleet’s area of operations encompasses 36 maritime countries and 50% of the world’s population, including:
    • The five largest foreign militaries: China, Russia, India, North Korea, and the Republic of Korea
    • Five U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty Allies: the Philippines, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Thailand