Melbourne | Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Australia on Wednesday to meet with allies in the Asia-Pacific region to solidify their partnership in the face of China’s rise to power.
The Secretary of State will participate in two days of meetings of the “Quad”, the alliance of the United States with Australia, India and Japan, hoping to strengthen what he wants to see become a bulwark against the wishes of economic and military domination of China.
Mr Blinken acknowledged that the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains “at the centre” of the US administration’s concerns, however, as he flew to Melbourne.
But he stressed that the United States remained a “central axis” in this region in the face of China’s ambitions, despite the crises in the Middle East in recent years and now in Central Europe.
“The world is vast. Our interests are planetary and you all know very well that our focus is on the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions,” he told reporters on board the plane.
“We pay a lot of attention to this, and that’s why we are going to Australia.»
Washington has sought to strengthen this alliance, which initially concerned maritime security before being extended to other areas, including the fight against coronavirus.
“The message that the Secretary of State will convey on this trip is that our partnerships are effective,” Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said before the trip.
“The Quad is a key element of U.S. foreign, economic and security policy in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added.
Launched in 2007, the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” began with joint naval maneuvers between the United States, India and Japan in the Indian Ocean.
In 2020, Australia joined these exercises and clashes between the Chinese and Indian armies in a disputed border region led the traditionally non-aligned New Delhi to become more involved in the Quad.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the fourth meeting of the “Quad” foreign ministers would discuss security but also on the distribution of vaccines in the region, cyber technologies, the fight against fake news, terrorism and climate change.
“As a network of democracies, we are committed to very concrete cooperation and to ensuring that all the nations of the Indo-Pacific region – large and small – are able to make their own strategic decisions and take them without constraint,” she told Australia’s ABC radio.
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