This happened shortly after President Joe Biden met with leaders from India, Australia and Japan at a virtual summit on Friday, at his first multilateral leader-level summit as president.
“And China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undermine democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet and enforce maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law” , he added. “We will retreat, if necessary, when China uses coercion or aggression to get what it wants.”
Speaking to reporters, Austin said that China has spent the past two decades modernizing its armed forces, while the United States has focused on the Middle East. “Therefore, our goal is to ensure that we maintain a competitive advantage over China or anyone else who wants to threaten us or threaten our alliance,” he said. “And that we have developed operational plans and capabilities to stop any attacker.”
The strategic environment of the Indo-Pacific has changed in recent years, said Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan’s foreign minister, both in military capacity and in the balance of power.
“(A) free and open international order is greatly challenged by attempts to change the status quo by the strength and progress of the authoritarian system,” said Motegi.
He said Washington and Tokyo “agree that China’s actions, which are not consistent with the existing international order, pose a number of issues against the Japan-US alliance and international society.”
Motegi said the US and Japan “oppose any attempt to change the status quo in the area, including the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and share a serious concern about the China Coast Guard Act” , referring to a Chinese law enacted in February that allows its Coast Guard to fire on foreign vessels entering the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
Motegi also said the United States had reconfirmed its commitment to help Japan defend Senkakus, a series of disputed islands in the East China Sea that China calls Diayous and claims as its own.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday that exchanges between the US and Japan should help to increase mutual understanding and trust between countries in the region and “not aim or undermine the interests of third parties “.
Myanmar and North Korea on the agenda
Blinken and Motegi “condemned the coup and the use of violence in Burma, expressed concern about the expansion of authoritarian and aggressive actions by the People’s Republic of China and agreed to strengthen coordination with the same opinion on these issues,” according to the US State Department demonstration.
During the negotiations, Blinken also emphasized the “powerful and vital” economic relationship between the two countries.
“It is no accident that we chose Japan for the first Biden-Harris cabinet-level trip abroad,” he said. “Japan and the United States are deeply cooperating on the key issues of our time, the issues that really affect the lives of our citizens – whether in combating climate change, cybersecurity or global health security.”
The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearizing North Korea and creating opportunities for greater trilateral cooperation between the U.S., Japan and South Korea, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.
The Biden government tried to reach North Korea through several channels, but Pyongyang has not responded so far, said Blinken. Austin added that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains a priority and that alliances with South Korea and Japan are the most important tools that the United States has in combating the threat from North Korea.
Other issues on Tuesday’s agenda included the US-Japan supply chain, clean energy, economic recovery after Covid-19 and how to prevent new pandemics. They reiterated their commitments to decarbonization, the expansion of clean energy technologies and the achievement of net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050