Sandeep dikshit
Tribune news service
New Delhi, October 7
US Administration officials have cited India’s tensions with China in eastern Ladakh as one of the reasons for US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s harsh words about China in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Speaking in other engagements before the four Quad countries’ foreign ministers met for three hours, Pompeo attacked China and the Chinese Communist Party on grounds ranging from coercion to corruption. Although a US reading of Pompeo’s account of the Quad ministerial meeting did not point to China, he was the only one of the four foreign ministers to do so in his earlier remarks, such as during an interview and in his keynote address.
The essence that emerged from the meeting was to undertake a joint initiative or cooperate in critical technologies and materials, maritime and cyber security and construction of quality infrastructure. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne referred to positivity as the main force behind the deliberations, which disagreed with what Pompeo had advocated. The other two participants, S Jaishankar and Toshimitsu Motegi, also kept China away from their directions.
However, a senior US State Department official, briefing the media, said that Pompeo was right to explicitly criticize China because of “Beijing’s sudden turn towards serious aggression throughout its periphery.” This included the conflict in the Himalayas, where something that was handled according to unspoken or unwritten rules in the past has now turned into “people who are beaten to death.”
“You take it [the sudden Chinese aggression] all the way around the Indo-Pacific and its western borders; you are seeing things that you have not seen before, and they are responding to that, ” the official added.
Another official said that if China thought it was a great power, it should participate in the arms control talks and use the WTO in ways that are acceptable to all.
Officials also downplayed China’s claim to help the WHO fight the pandemic. While the US has invested $ 20.5 billion in a vaccine, China offered $ 2 billion in April and “as far as I know, we haven’t seen any of that money.”
“China promises a lot, but it doesn’t necessarily deliver unless you force it. And that’s one area where this group can help ensure they fall short, ” the official added.
