The United States will reject China’s aggressive actions, including its “inordinate” territorial claims on the border with India, even as it contemplates formalizing the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad as an alliance, a senior State Department official said.
Under Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said China has been “now fighting on virtually all fronts” and has “seized every opportunity it can, from stealing technology to asserting national sovereignty over the territory and territorial waters of China. other countries “, and the United States is in a” concerted effort to push back on all fronts. ”
“Our strategy is to roll back China in practically every domain. We are doing it in the security area. We are doing it in terms of inordinate demands to claim sovereign territory, whether it is in India’s Galwan Valley on the India-China border, or in the South Pacific. We are also doing it economically, ”he said.
Biegun made the remarks during a conversation with Richard Varma, a former US envoy to India, at a leadership summit organized by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) late Monday.
When asked about China’s aggressive actions on the disputed border with India, in Hong Kong and throughout the Indo-Pacific, Biegun said that the Donald Trump administration is focused on countering the “predatory practices of the Chinese economy” and is working to “balance the US-China economic relationship.”
China was welcomed into global institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) two decades ago to help the country transition to a more rules-based order, but this “experiment has failed in all domains,” he said.
He said China “grew so rapidly at the beginning of this century” that its “enormous influence in those institutions seeks instead to transform those institutions in the interests of China.” This is unacceptable from the point of view of the United States, which is pushing back institutions like the World Health Organization or the World Intellectual Property Organization, he added.
China is cracking down on Tibetans and Uighurs, has violated an agreement with the United Kingdom on the Hong Kong transition, and is “close to hostilities with the government of India” and “in a state of hostility with the people of Taiwan” Biegun said.
Answering a question about the possibility of giving a formal shape to the Quad, an informal dialogue mechanism between Australia, India, Japan and the US, and whether the broader strategy behind it was countering the rise of China, Biegun He said that “certainly a temptation in governments” to formalize the mechanism.
The Indo-Pacific, he noted, lacks “strong multilateral structures” such as NATO or the European Union. “The strongest institutions in Asia are often not inclusive enough, and so … certainly there is an invitation there at some point to formalize a structure like this,” he said.
Biegun cautioned that responding to the threat from China itself would not be enough momentum for such an organization, and the US goal is to “create a critical mass around the shared values and interests … of a a way that attracts more people. ” Indo-Pacific countries … work for a common cause or even, ultimately, align themselves in a more structured way ”.
He said Washington would keep its “ambitions in check to start with a very strong group of members,” and a formal alliance would only “happen if the other countries are as committed as the United States.”
Biegun also noted that India had recognized that it “cannot be a passive player” in relation to developments in the Indo-Pacific region and this has prompted the Quad’s recent activities, including a weekly meeting of the four members together with New Zealand. , South Korea and Vietnam on ways to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also said a Quad ministerial meeting is expected to be held “this fall in Delhi, that’s the intention anyway, in person.” He added: “I would say that this Quad concept has really helped India find a place in the largest theater in the Indo-Pacific.”
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