HIROSHIMA: The leaders of the Quadruple group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled blow to Beijing’s behavior on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.
US President Joe Biden and his three bandmates did not name China but the communist superpower was clearly the target of remarks in a joint statement calling for ‘peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain’ .
“We strongly oppose destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo through force or coercion,” the statement said, using diplomatic language that appears to refer to China’s economic tactics to gain leverage over the poorest countries as well as its military expansion in the Pacific. .
“We express our deep concern over the militarization of the contested elements, the dangerous use of Coast Guard and Maritime Militia vessels, and efforts to disrupt the offshore resource exploitation activities of other countries.” , the statement added, clearly referring to Chinese construction of bases on ancient offshore reefs. and harassment of non-Chinese vessels in disputed waters.
The Quad leaders held their meeting when they were already gathered in Hiroshima for a Group of 7 summit.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was due to welcome Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sydney next week. However, Biden pulled out, saying he was due to fly back to Washington from Japan on Sunday to negotiate with Republican opponents over the US debt ceiling.
Biden apologized for forcing the change of plans and invited Albanese to make a state visit to the White House.
In their statement, they highlighted the Quad’s support for infrastructure improvements in the vast Asia-Pacific region, while saying, in another apparent dig in China, that they wanted to help such investments but “don’t would not impose an unsustainable debt burden” on aid recipients. .
Among the projects put forward by Quad executives was the “urgent need to support quality submarine cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, which are essential to global growth and prosperity.” They announced a partnership aimed at drawing on their countries’ expertise in the field of specialized maritime cables.
They also said an existing pilot program for high-tech monitoring of illegal fishing would be expanded.
And they said they were “deeply concerned” by the repression in Myanmar, and they condemned “the launching of destabilizing ballistic missiles and the pursuit of nuclear weapons by North Korea in violation of multiple resolutions of the Security Council of the UN”.
US President Joe Biden and his three bandmates did not name China but the communist superpower was clearly the target of remarks in a joint statement calling for ‘peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain’ .
“We strongly oppose destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo through force or coercion,” the statement said, using diplomatic language that appears to refer to China’s economic tactics to gain leverage over the poorest countries as well as its military expansion in the Pacific. .
“We express our deep concern over the militarization of the contested elements, the dangerous use of Coast Guard and Maritime Militia vessels, and efforts to disrupt the offshore resource exploitation activities of other countries.” , the statement added, clearly referring to Chinese construction of bases on ancient offshore reefs. and harassment of non-Chinese vessels in disputed waters.
The Quad leaders held their meeting when they were already gathered in Hiroshima for a Group of 7 summit.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was due to welcome Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sydney next week. However, Biden pulled out, saying he was due to fly back to Washington from Japan on Sunday to negotiate with Republican opponents over the US debt ceiling.
Biden apologized for forcing the change of plans and invited Albanese to make a state visit to the White House.
In their statement, they highlighted the Quad’s support for infrastructure improvements in the vast Asia-Pacific region, while saying, in another apparent dig in China, that they wanted to help such investments but “don’t would not impose an unsustainable debt burden” on aid recipients. .
Among the projects put forward by Quad executives was the “urgent need to support quality submarine cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, which are essential to global growth and prosperity.” They announced a partnership aimed at drawing on their countries’ expertise in the field of specialized maritime cables.
They also said an existing pilot program for high-tech monitoring of illegal fishing would be expanded.
And they said they were “deeply concerned” by the repression in Myanmar, and they condemned “the launching of destabilizing ballistic missiles and the pursuit of nuclear weapons by North Korea in violation of multiple resolutions of the Security Council of the UN”.
