Antony Blinken warned Beijing on Tuesday March 16 against the use of "coercion and aggression" as the US Secretary of State intends to take advantage of his first international trip to solidify alliances with the United States in Asia in order to contain the influence of China.
Beijing's territorial claims in the East and South China Seas are helping to heighten tensions in Sino-US relations and are a major concern for Japan.
"We will retaliate if necessary when China uses coercion and aggression to achieve its ends," said Antony Blinken.
The visit to Tokyo, then to Seoul on Wednesday, of the head of the American diplomacy, alongside the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, marks the first visit abroad of high representatives of the administration of President Joe Biden and comes after a last week's virtual meeting of the "Quad" (the quadrilateral security dialogue between the leaders of the United States, Japan, Australia and India).
In a joint statement with their Japanese counterparts Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin acknowledged that "China's behavior, when inconsistent with the existing international order, presents political, economic, military challenges. and technological for the Alliance and the international community ".
Meeting with Beijing in Anchorage
The statements come ahead of a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Alaska that will mark the first meeting between officials in the Biden administration and their Chinese counterparts to discuss relations between the two great world powers.
Talks in Anchorage city between Antony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the one hand, and senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the other, represent "a first discussion to understand our interests, intentions, and priorities," a US official told reporters Tuesday.
"There is sometimes the feeling, the perception, or maybe the hope in Beijing that our public message is different from our private message, and we think it is very important to dispel that idea very quickly," he said. -she adds.
She therefore assured that the American diplomats would be as firm in the closed doors of the meetings as in their recent declarations about their "deep concerns" on the repression of Uyghur Muslims, described as "genocide" by Washington, the autonomy of Hong Kong, "economic coercion" suffered by China's neighbors as well as "increasingly aggressive Chinese activities across the Taiwan Strait."
However, the Biden administration assures that it does not want to enter into detailed negotiations at this stage and therefore does not expect immediate announcements.
Moreover, there will be no joint declaration at the end of the Anchorage meeting.
With Reuters and AFP
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