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The Chinese diplomat’s assessment of the Quartet came when Wang Yi spoke to the press after meeting his Malaysian counterpart Hishammuddin Hussein in Kuala Lumpur, his second stop on a five-country visit. Southeast Asia this week.
The two foreign ministers made optimistic assessments of the bilateral relationship at the joint press conference and proposed a plan to hold a new high-level committee meeting to promote cooperation in the treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malaysia was placed on a “priority” list by Beijing to receive four COVID-19 vaccines, which Chinese pharmaceutical companies are currently testing in the final stage.
Hishammuddin said the Malaysian government is closely monitoring the situation when Beijing started supplying people with vaccines since November. Wang said “Malaysia is a good friend of China,” so the Chinese government Quoc is willing to “consult in detail and cooperate in vaccine production.”
On the issue of the South China Sea, one of the bottlenecks in relations between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, the two ministers said that peace and stability are a priority in the region. China has unreasonable claims on most of these strategic and resource-rich waters.
Hinting that the East Sea is increasingly becoming the representative arena for competition between the United States and China, Vuong said this area “should not be a place for great power competition, full of warships. “.
Wang also said that China and the 10 ASEAN countries should work together to eliminate “external disruptions” and continue to negotiate a code of conduct in the South China Sea.
The two foreign ministers emphasized China’s commitment to buy 1.7 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia over the next three years. As the world’s second largest producer and exporter of palm oil, Malaysia has been grappling with western palm oil lobbies in recent years.
Although he did not mention the US, Vuong was later greeted by a reporter Xinhua asked about views on US President Donald Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which is seen as an attempt to curb Chinese influence in Asia-Pacific.
“Basically, the Indo-Pacific strategy to create the so-called NATO in the Indo-Pacific is based on a four-part mechanism involving the United States, Japan, India and Australia,” he said. Vuong said.
“What they wanted was to ignite the ideology of the Cold War and provoke the confrontation between groups and the bloc and provoke a geopolitical competition. What they want to maintain is the dominance and hegemony of the United States, ”Vuong said.
“In this sense, this strategy is itself a significant security risk. If it is forced to advance, it will turn back the clock in history, “added the Chinese diplomat.
The harsh remarks came after the Quartet’s foreign ministers met in Tokyo last week.
At the interview Nikkei Asia, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said he hoped the group would institutionalize itself to “create a real security framework.”
Pompeo called the Quartet a “mechanism” that could “counteract the influence that China has over all of us.” He also said that other countries can join the group “at the right time.”
Theo CNA
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