Just as the US tries to convince its Asian allies that it is focused on their region and ready to face the challenge from China, it is being pulled into a security crisis in Europe.

In capitals from Canberra to Tokyo, the spectre of a Russian attack on Ukraine has diverted attention from the Indo-Pacific strategy — which the Biden administration published this month — to the fact that the US is again focusing its efforts elsewhere.

“No region will be of more consequence to the world and to everyday Americans than the Indo-Pacific,” the strategy proclaims, adding that the Biden administration “has made historic strides to restore American leadership” in the region. But government officials and analysts fret that the Ukraine crisis will render those pronouncements empty.