US plans fall “Quad” meeting By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to hold an autumn summit between leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (“Quad”) countries – the United States, Australia, India and Japan – by putting the emphasis on infrastructure in the face of the challenge posed by China, the coordinator of the American Indo-Pacific policy said on Wednesday.

Kurt Campbell said other countries would be welcome to work with the Quad, which held a first virtual summit in March and pledged to work closely on COVID-19 vaccines, climate and security.

“We want to consider this fall convening a Quad in person to make a similar commitment on infrastructure more generally,” said Kurt Campbell.

“The dominant paradigm is going to be competition. Our goal is to make it a stable and peaceful competition that brings out the best in us,” he said, while warning: “There will probably be times to come, in which there will be times of worry. “

Kurt Campbell said the “operating system” that the United States helped put in place in Asia remained intact, but that it was “under great pressure” in the face of China’s rise to power.

Joe Biden, who advocates heavy infrastructure spending in his country, said in March that he suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that democratic countries should have an infrastructure plan to compete with the Chinese initiative. ” Belt and Road. “

“Belt and Road” is a multibillion-dollar infrastructure plan launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, involving projects from East Asia to Europe and seen as a way to significantly expand Beijing’s economic and political influence.

(David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina, version française Camille Raynaud)

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