Criticism of the four thinly veiled countries in China

Hiroshima:

The leaders of the Quartet – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered mild criticism of Beijing’s behavior on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.

US President Joe Biden and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name, but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement that called for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain.”

“We firmly oppose actions that are destabilizing or aimed at changing the status quo by force or coercion,” the statement said, using diplomatic language that appears to refer to China’s economic tactics to gain influence over poor countries as well as its military expansion in the Pacific. .

“We express our deep concern about the militarization of disputed landmarks, the dangerous use of coast guard and naval militia ships, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ marine resource exploitation activities,” the statement added, in a clear reference to China’s construction of bases on former sea reefs. and harassing non-Chinese ships in disputed waters.

The Quartet leaders held their meeting when they were already in Hiroshima for the G-7 summit.

Biden was due to host Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Sydney next week. However, Biden pulled out, saying he had to return to Washington from Japan on Sunday to negotiate with Republican opponents over the US debt ceiling.

Biden apologized for forcing the change in plans and invited Albanese to pay a state visit to the White House.

In their statement, they stressed the Quartet’s support for infrastructure improvements across the vast Asia-Pacific region while, in another apparent quest in China, they said they wanted to help such investments but would “not impose unsustainable debt burdens” on aid recipients. .

Among the projects highlighted by the Quartet leaders was the “urgent need to support high-quality submarine cable networks in the Indo-Pacific region, which are essential to global growth and prosperity.” We announced a partnership aimed at benefiting from the experiences of their countries in the specialized submarine cables sector.

They also said that an existing pilot program for high-tech poaching surveillance would be expanded.

They said they were “deeply concerned” by the crackdown in Myanmar, and condemned “North Korea’s destabilizing ballistic missile launches and its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by the NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)