New phase of US-China relations comes with tests for India

A sharp exchange between top US and Chinese officials in Alaska on Friday, which played out in the eyes of the media as a whole, marked the beginning of a new phase in US-China relations – one that was new to India. There are challenges.

If such scripted meetings usually result in surprising public exchanges by diplomatic norms, it is entirely expected.

Ultimately, the two sides, led by the Biden administration’s first-in-person engagement with China, made it clear that the meeting at Anchorage was more about drawing red lines than any real attempt at a reset. Even describing whether the meeting had actually emerged as discord, labeled by Beijing as a “strategic dialogue”, even Washington disputed that description.

Yangchi, politburo member and director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, and Secretary of State Antoine Blinken, along with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan for talks with the foreign minister, Wang Yi, expressed deep concerns with the action Set the tone. By China, including Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on America and economic coercion towards our allies ”.

These actions, he said, threatened a “rules-based order maintaining global stability”, as he called the Biden administration’s view of relations with China “competitive where it should be, where it could ally, Convicted, where repulsive, should be blamed. ” ”

Mr. Yang then gave a 16-minute speech, which went well beyond the two-minute opening statement, which he said he “felt compelled to make” because of “the tone of the US”. Mr. Yang gave the slogan the “so-called rules-based international order”, which he said “advocates a small number of countries” – the US-India-Japan-Australia “Quad”, incidentally, among them. This was confounding China with a position of strength due to Washington’s controversy – the Alaska meeting followed the Quad Leaders’ summit last week and Mr. Blinken’s recent visit to Japan and South Korea – Mr. Yang retorted, ” The US does not have the ability to say. It wants to speak to China from a position of strength. “The comment was widely disseminated in the Chinese media, reflecting a new momentum in the welcome relationship.

Beijing’s message was that if Washington expected the meeting to be a one-way drawing of the red lines, it was clearly wrong. Meanwhile, Washington’s unequivocal message was that the Biden administration would certainly not be Obama 2.0, a time when both sides insisted on cooperation.

key takeaways

The main route from Alaska to the turbulent Trump era is unlikely to result in any reset. At the same time, the shrill beginnings, which were to some extent the result of public posture by both parties, who were concerned about sending the right message to their audience at home, may give way to some cautious engagement.

If China made concessions by traveling to Alaska, then a point made by its officials, in the coming months, Mr. The return of Beijing by Blinken, should it happen, would underline that the two sides still want spaces to work together. . For example, the two may still agree to cooperate on issues such as climate change, global economic reform, and Afghanistan.

The second passage is on the one hand a depiction of the lines of war between Washington and its allies, and on the other, Beijing and its main allies when it arrives in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia, Russia. Before the Alaska talks, China announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Russia’s Vladimir Putin a “killer”.

It will herald a test specifically for India’s diplomacy, beginning with Russia’s defense of India’s defense supplies, as well as the US making it clear that sanctions from importing Russian equipment such as the S-400 missile defense system Along with this, the US will stop high-tech exports. .

While India faces its problems with China amid a slow disintegration process along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), it has made it clear that it does not want to be part of any alliance. This balancing act is part of India’s changing multilateral engagements, ranging from the Quad to RIC (Russia-India-China), BRICS, and groups such as China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The US-China divide would also mean a drastic step for India in the UN Security Council, where it is serving a two-year term as a non-permanent member, on the one hand where the US, Britain and France split. IS and Russia and China are widespread in other countries, as seen in response to the Myanmar coup.