Tillerson calls for better ties with India as he chides China

WASHINGTON: The United States vowed on Wednesday to work with India in preference to China over the next century to promote a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region led by prosperous democracies.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered his unexpectedly sharp message to Beijing on the same day President Xi Jinping opened the Communist Party congress.

His upbeat speech was designed to set the stage for a visit next week to China’s main Asian rival India and to lay out a vision for a 100-year “strategic partnership” between Washington and New Delhi.

But President Donald Trump’s chief diplomat also took the opportunity to compare the US and India — the world’s “two greatest democracies” — with China, which he said was undermining the “rules-based international order”.

Coming on the day Xi opened a party congress designed to further secure his long-term control of what was already one of the most powerful Chinese presidencies in history, Tillerson’s address would be seen as provocative.

After the speech, reporters asked a senior State Department official whether it was intended as a warning or rebuke to China.

“It’s a speech that was designed for many audiences,” he said, smiling.

“The fact that he mentioned China is obviously built into the speech,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But this is a speech, obviously, that we hope all countries in the IndoPacific region will take to heart.”

Washington and Delhi have been building stronger ties for some time, but Tillerson made one of the clearest cases that the “shared values” underpinning the relationship made India and the US ideal partners.

As such, the speech amounted to a warning to great power rival China that Washington would build regional alliances to counter its ever-growing power, while promoting free trade and open sea lanes.

“The US and India are increasingly global partners with growing strategic convergence,” Tillerson said.

“Indians and Americans don’t just share an affinity for democracy. We share a vision of the future,” he said, projecting the relationship into the next 100 years.

Promising greater prosperity and security in a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, Tillerson pushed India, which had protectionist laws, to open up its borders to more regional and US trade.

But his harshest words were for China, the Asian economic behemoth and the nearest rival to India’s huge population or to the US’s still world-leading economy.

“China, while rising alongside India, has done so less responsibly, at times undermining the international, rules-based order,” Tillerson chided.

“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the US and India both stand for.” AFP