US focus on ties with Indo-Pacific nations

WASHINGTON: The United States stressed increasing cooperation with allies and partners India, Australia and Japan in the IndoPacific region on the eve of President Donald Trump’s delegationlevel meeting with his host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“The US is always talking very closely, from the leader level all the way down to our close allies, Australia and Japan,” a senior official told reporters while previewing the upcoming bilateral meeting, when asked if a quadrilateral or ‘quad’ alliance of the US, Australia, Japan and India could figure during the talks in Tokyo on Monday.

“We, of course — we do not have a security alliance — none of those countries have a security alliance with India. India is an increasingly important security partner, no doubt. It's natural that they should be, given that they are really, sort of, conceptually the western edge of the IndoPacific region; the US making up the eastern edge of that.”

The reason the US calls the region Indo-Pacific, the official said, was because the “phrase captures the importance of India’s rise”.

He rejected suggestions that the ‘quad’ alliance was about containing China, as it is being seen around the world increasingly, including in Beijing.

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as containing China,” he said

Talk of a quadrilateral alliance has gained strength in recent weeks after Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono stated Prime Minister Abe will propose it in his discussions with President Trump as an alternative to China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.

JAPAN PRIME MINISTER WILL BE TAKING UP TALKS OF THE ALLIANCE IN HIS DISCUSSIONS WITH THE US PRESIDENT