The world’s response to the Ukraine crisis is being watched by “others,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday in a pointed reference to China’s expansive territorial claims in Asia.
“Others are watching, others are looking to all of us to see how we respond,” Blinken said after meeting with foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue in Melbourne.
His comments come after China stepped up its military exercises around Taiwan in the past few months, including record numbers of flybys.
Photo: Reuters
China is also engaged in a Himalayan border standoff with India and has built up its naval presence in the South China Sea, which it claims.
Blinken’s comments came after Moscow and Beijing earlier this month declared a “no limits” partnership, backing each other over standoffs on Taiwan and Ukraine with a promise to collaborate more against the West.
Beijing supports Russia’s demand that Ukraine should not be admitted into NATO, while Moscow opposes any form of independence for Taiwan, as global powers jostle over their spheres of influence.
Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine threatens the international rules-based order, Blinken said, adding that if such an action went unpunished, it could have consequences in the Indo-Pacific region — an apparent hint at the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“If we allow those principles to be challenged with impunity, even if it’s half a world away, that will have an impact here as well,” Blinken said.
Australia, India, Japan and the US form the Quad, a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies created to counter China’s growing regional influence.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, who chaired the meeting, said that the alliance between Moscow and Beijing was “concerning because it doesn’t ... represent a global order that squares with ... ambitions for freedom and openness and sovereignty and the protection of territorial integrity.”
Blinken earlier yesterday said that a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region was not inevitable.
“We share concerns that in recent years China has been acting more aggressively at home and more aggressively in the region and indeed potentially beyond,” Blinken said.
The Quad partners are united by an “affirmative vision for what the future can bring” and a “commitment to defend the rules-based system that we have spent tremendous time and effort building,” he added.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said that the Quad is only a tool to contain China.
“This is a deliberate move to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and cooperation,” he told a regular news briefing yesterday. “I want to stress that the Cold War is long gone and any attempt to create an alliance that is aimed at containing China will not be popular and such moves are doomed to fail.”
Additional reporting by AP
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